Friday, June 28, 2013

Anthony Berkeley

Anthony Berkeley Cox is one of the lesser remembered writers of Britain's Golden Age of Detection, yet was oddly one of the leading members of the genre at the time. While not educated in the hallowed halls of Oxford or Cambridge, like many his contemporaries, he attended the secular University College London. After serving in the British army during WWI, Berkeley took to writing as a journalist for such magazines as Punch and The Humorist. Berkeley published under many pseudonyms, such as Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley (he omitted the Cox) and A. Monmouth Platts. In fact many people might recognize his writing as Francis Iles more, because his book, Malice Aforethought, was made into a BBC Movie staring Richard Armitage, and when I say staring, it's really a minor role, but it is staring to me.

In his writing, Berkeley is most known for the creation of the novice sleuth Roger Sheringham, who appeared in Berkeley's first novel, The Layton Court Mystery, which he published anonymously. Berkeley's book The Poisoned Chocolate Case staring Sheringham, is considered a classic of this classic genre. While he continued writing for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Gaurdian until his death in 1971, it wasn't his writing that Berkeley is most famous for.

In 1930 he co-founded the legendary Detection Club with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Baroness Orczy, G.K. Chesteron,  and other established mystery writers. The club had regular meetings where the authors would discuss their projects and get help with the technical aspects of their books. The club is noted for the fact that they adhered to a code of "fair play." Meaning, in their writing, they were to give the reader a fair chance at guessing the guilty party. While the club still exists, the fair play rule has become even more lax... in fact their were several members of the original club who didn't adhere to the rule at the time. They published several anthologies and co-authored many books, which Berkeley contributed to. Because of Berkeley's involvement in the club he is considered a key figure in the development of crime fiction and a worthy inclusion in my Golden Summer.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Book Review - A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Published by: Vintage Books
Publication Date: April 6th, 1922
Format: Paperback, 211 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Antony Gillingham has a propensity to change jobs as it suits him. He is financially secure enough to take on any job that pleases him from tobacconist to waiter to experience more of the world; and then, when he's done, he tells his boss precisely what he thinks of him and goes onto his next adventure. The first time he met Bill Beverley he was working as a tobacconist, after their next encounter at a restaurant where each was there in a very different capacity, a friendship was formed, wherein Bill realized that the moniker madman perfectly suits Antony. Antony was following one of his whims when, seeing a train station he liked, he disembarked and decided to stay in the small town. He quickly finds out that he is not a mile away from the Red House, where his good friend Bill is currently staying.

Up at the Red House, it's owner Mark Ablett, with the help of his cousin come secretary, Cayley, is hosting a riotous house party. Bill is one of the number of guests, who range from quite fetching young ladies to a rather famous actress. Mark loves to have his life filled with the bright young things at his Red House. On the same day that Antony decided he liked the look of a train station, Mark informs his guests that his disreputable brother is about to make an appearance at the Red House. When Antony unexpectedly shows up he finds all the guests out and Cayley banging on the office door. What they find behind that door is the dead body of Mark's brother, Robert. Antony was planning on this being his vacation, but he feels a sudden change of occupation presenting itself... he's never been a detective. With a dead body and Mark missing, now might be the best opportunity he will ever get, with Bill being the Watson to his Holmes.   

After the last few books I read for this summer's reading spectacular, I was feeling a little burnt out. The detectives were a little too quirky or a little too self involved. Originally I had not planned on reading The Red House Mystery, but I was feeling this desperate need for something different. A mystery written by the man known more for Winnie-the-Pooh then locked room mysteries seemed like it would fit the bill. And indeed it was the perfect antidote to bring me around. The introduction alone wherein Milne deftly skewers the plot contrivances of his fellow mystery writers and promises to avoid all their pit falls was well worth the price of this book. Thankfully this tone carried throughout the book and made it a fast and fun read.

A.A. Milne goes about avoiding the faults of other writers by clearing the decks. Instead of extraneous characters out the wazoo, we get a sparse mystery about two guys humorously trying to find out how their suspect committed the crime. There are no lovestruck ninnies or plethora of suspicious servants. There are no last minute surprises that come out of nowhere. While other writers have done a quick nod and wink to Holmes and Watson, Milne goes all out and embraces this trope and has Antony and Bill openly referring to each other by their designated roles. Milne believes in the fact that a detective must Watsonize (I'm totally going to use this word all the time now), because without that, how are we, the reader, to be brought along and given the evidence to solve the crime? Therefore Bill becomes Watson, though a rather clever one, and Antony dons the famous mantle of Holmes... or at least he smokes a pipe a lot.

Yet, the question becomes, how does this book sustain itself? You have the obvious good guys and the obvious bad guy and lots of time spent trying to one up each other. Also, to be frank, the mystery, well, it's not overly obvious, but it is not that taxing on the little grey cells. So why does this book work then? Because of the characters. Antony and Bill's camaraderie and witty banter belongs to the works of Wodehouse. The two of them sitting on a bowling green thinking out all the facts before them is more interesting then all of Inspector Grant's internal monologues combined. This humor just gives the book such a freshness that it should be considered one of the staples of the Golden Age of Detection... it has a lot more going for it then some of those other books!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Seventeen-year-old Natalie Waite longs to escape home for college. Her father is a domineering and egotistical writer who keeps a tight rein on Natalie and her long-suffering mother. When Natalie finally does get away, however, college life doesn’t bring the happiness she expected. Little by little, Natalie is no longer certain of anything—even where reality ends and her dark imaginings begin. Chilling and suspenseful, Hangsaman is loosely based on the real-life disappearance of a Bennington College sophomore in 1946."

Shirley Jackson!

The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Pepper Street is a really nice, safe California neighborhood. The houses are tidy and the lawns are neatly mowed. Of course, the country club is close by, and lots of pleasant folks live there. The only problem is they knocked down the wall at the end of the street to make way for a road to a new housing development. Now, that’s not good—it’s just not good at all. Satirically exploring what happens when a smug suburban neighborhood is breached by awful, unavoidable truths, The Road Through the Wall is the tale that launched Shirley Jackson’s heralded career."

Am I a little obsessed with Shirley Jackson... um, yeah.

Cold Steel by Kate Elliot
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 624 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Trouble, treachery, and magic just won't stop plaguing Cat Barahal. The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen her husband Andevai. The ruler of the Taino kingdom blames her for his mother's murder. The infamous General Camjiata insists she join his army to help defeat the cold mages who rule Europa. An enraged fire mage wants to kill her. And Cat, her cousin Bee, and her half-brother Rory, aren't even back in Europa yet, where revolution is burning up the streets.

Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.

Cat and Bee have their work cut out for them."

I just picked up the first book in this trilogy and it's nice to know that if I love it I won't have to wait fifty million years for the ending, damn you GRRM!

Friday, June 21, 2013

A.A. Milne

Not many people would think of the man who created Winnie-the-Pooh as a mystery writer during it's Golden Age... yet he was. Sensation as the inquest reporters would write! A.A. Milne went to a private school run by his father where one of his teachers just happened to be H.G. Wells. When he went up to Cambridge with his brother Kenneth, they collaborated on articles for a local student magazine. His writing soon came to the attention of Punch magazine, where he joined the staff in 1906. But then the war intervened. After illness made him leave his regiment, he ended up working with Military Intelligence.

Once the war ended, he resumed his writing career, defying anyone to complain about what genre he was to write in next. He had a ready audience for whatever new direction he took, and one of those directions was to write a murder mystery during the height of the Golden Age of Detection. Of course, after the success of The Red House Mystery, his editor asked if he would write more mysteries, to which Milne responded but taking up a pen and writing When We Were Very Young, which contained the first appearance of Winnie-the-Pooh. While he attempted to regain his versatility of writing, he would forever be known as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh to his annoyance... so here's to a secret gem of the Golden Age of Crime Detection in the guise of a famous children's author.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Book Review - Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue

The Man in the Queue (Inspector Alan Grant Book 1) by Josephine Tey
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: 1929
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Inspector Alan Grant has been given the infamous Queue case. A man with no identification was stabbed in a busy queue outside the Woffington Theatre as fans waited to see the final hurrah of Ray Marcable in the smash hit Didn't You Know? With just a knife and a handful of witnesses that didn't see anything, Inspector Grant is able to quickly build a case against the mysterious man he nicknames the Levantine, because of his swarthy appearance and the passionate and daring way the crime was committed. Yet what if all this evidence pointing at the unknown Levantine is just circumstantial? What if, while Grant builds a solid case against this one man, the killer walks free? Because even after hunting down the apparent killer through London and the Highlands, Grant still thinks that maybe, just maybe, there is a different interpretation of the evidence that he hasn't quite yet grasped.

Dear lord, Josephine Tey sure loved to avoid paragraph breaks, sheesh. Sometimes there would be pages upon pages of just dense, heavy text that I would slog through. This is easily the most overly written book I have read in recent memory which caused my experience with the book to be a very labored one. The writing style lent nothing to the story, unless a lead weight around your neck is a plus with books. Now, I'm not slamming writers who others might consider as overly written, like Erin Morgenstern and The Night Circus... but there's overwritten and then there's a rich tapestry of words that are evocative and make a world vibrant and alive. This is not Josephine Tey. I have a feeling that to Robert Barnard, the Tey scholar and writer I've never heard of that wrote this book's introduction which has more paragraph breaks then the book's first chapter, that "them be fighting words." Because apparently, to denigrate Tey is outre, but to pile on the harsh criticism to Agatha Christie is perfectly acceptable. Now I've only read one Tey and many Christie... but if this book is a testament to Tey, then we are through.

The aspect of this book that just baffled me is that it was a given that people in a queue would ignore each other and not be able to even slightly identify those around them after several hours in each others company. Is this a British thing that I just don't get despite my desire to be as British as can be while still being in Wisconsin? Because, let's put it this way; I have spent many an hour in a queue. I don't think I could even add it up, nor would I want to, because, let's put it this way, if I did, it would probably depress me to learn how much of my life has been spent waiting. From queues at conventions waiting for entrance and autographs, to queues at book signings, to just lining up for a movie, I have been in every kind of queue you could imagine, and you know what? In every instance I have talked to the people around me. I wasn't in an insular little bubble ignoring everyone and just playing on my phone, oh no. A chance comment from someone near me would spark a conversation, in fact the most recent that I remember clearly was when I went to see The Hobbit. The friend I was with, well, the conversation was lacking, so I took to talking to the picture of Martin Freeman on the movie poster, and I was lambasting him for the crap fest his tv show The Robinsons was, the people behind us spoke up saying how much they agreed on this fact and we got to talking about Martin Freeman and his mostly genius career (The Robinsons excluded).

At first I was thinking that maybe the people in this book's queue just didn't have anything in common... like one does at a convention or book signing, but then I thought, uh, no. These people are Ray Marcable fanatics (yes, I did audibly groan at her name)... of course they have a common link. So unless someone can come out and offer me 100% proof that Britain is not at all like America in it's queues then I'm calling Josephine Tey out as saying the crux of her book plays false. J'accuse! 

Though the superfluous writing combined with an illogical premise isn't what made this book fail me in every way, it's the fact that it was boring. Alan Grant bored me to tears. He just toddles through life looking nothing like a police officer and always being complimented on this. He sits in tubs and at fancy restaurants where he is fawned over while he pushes the case to the back of his mind, because not thinking about it too much helps him solve it. He goes to the race track, he goes fishing, he goes and resigns and we never hear from him again, I wish! As for the rest of the characters... no one is really painted in a bad light. They're all just people going about their lives. Boring dull people with boring dull lives. If you think about it, if there was a murder and you were accused, I'd bet only a handful of us would have an alibi, because, let's face it, our lives are rather dull and unvaried and go along as they always have. Therefore, by extension, in Tey's book, while no one really has an alibi, they are just as dull as we are on the whole. Who wants to read about people like us? A good book is an escape, not a dulled mirror of our day to day lives. Give me something to whet my appetite, make me want to read late into the night, not hope to misplace the book and never find it again.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Book Review - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's The Long War

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties

Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you
What more can we do?

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society
God save Mrs. Mopp and good old Mother Riley
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium
God save the George Cross, and all those who were awarded them

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliates
God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties

God save the village green!

A generation has passed since the Long Earth has opened up. Travel is now easily possible between the worlds and large and small communities are forming throughout this stepwise expansion. Joshua is now married with a son and has a contented life. Then Sally shows back up and tells him that the Long Earth needs him. Joshua's wife realizes that as long as Joshua is Joshua, if Sally shows up and says the Long Earth needs him, he will go. Things are happening that his voice will lend credence to. Sure, there are political problems and questions of taxing and policing the footprint of America, but Sally couldn't care less. She is worried about the trolls. They have always lived peacefully in their way and have even proved a valuable resource to the settlers. Their long call binds the earths together. Yet humanity is uneasy of their presence. Violence has arisen against the trolls and the trolls have responded by disappearing. Sally knows, in her bones, that the Long Earth cannot survive without the trolls. They must be found. So their journeys begin again.

About a year ago, when I read the last page of The Long Earth, all I could think of was how was I going to be able to wait a year for the second volume. I am not at all patient in my nature, luckily my Barnes and Noble understands me, and I don't know by what fortuitous alignment of planets this happened, but they accidentally put this book out the Friday before it's release date and I was lucky enough to be stopping by looking for Father's Day cards (see, it pays to be a good daughter!) Going home I quickly finished off the book I was reading, how could I not, and then I returned to the world Terry and Stephen had made. The reentry was not the smoothest. I should have perhaps re-read The Long Earth, because there was more that I had forgotten then remembered, so that might have brought my appreciation for the book down a notch or two, but I quickly rebounded.

The Long War, set twenty or so years after Joshua's legendary journey with Lobsang, really doesn't have that much more of a plot then the first book. And seeing as it's twenty or so years on... shouldn't the jokes be less timely to 2013? I mean, sure, there is a stalling of continued innovation and invention due to people fleeing the Datum, but still, for 2040, less of the 2013 would be nice. The book continues with the further exploration of the Long Earth but weaves into it the ramifications of what this means politically, environmentally, and even morally. This book deals with massive concepts but in a palatable way. The Long War deals with humanities dual nature of innovation and destruction. That said, I think a book with "war" in the title might have a little more war and a little less barbecue parties as a denouement. Unless it really is "a war unlike any mankind has waged before" in that it's not really a war...

As for humanities innovation, they have spread across the Long Earth and made new colonies and new ways of life. Joshua lives in a little town in a stepwise Hannibal Missouri, home on the Datum of Mark Twain, where his life is very much like it would have been for a settler when "westward ho" was the call in America. Yet this new frontier and westward expansion is different from our ancestors, because the human capacity of ingenuity is infinite, and they create colonies, not just in one world, but in the same area over many. They are able to use different worlds for scavenging, and this changes the way things work and the need for life's sustainability converts back to a hunter gatherer nature versus an agrarian nature. Though just the fact that all these stepwise Earths are in the footprint of what is on the Datum, the United States of America... well, that brings a whole lot of other problems with it. But to me, there's a feel of a science fiction Little House on the Prairie meets Deadwood vibe, that in turn had me start rewatching Deadwood.

But humanity itself is the main problem. There are so many evils that man does. Without even consciously thinking, the expansion into the Long Earth has brought death and destruction to the worlds and to the indigenous trolls and kobolds and elves. I keep going back to the Kinks song that the kobold Finn McCool loves in the book, The Village Green Preservation Society, it's about preserving how we've always done things. The world, or in this case, worlds, around us have changed, but we stay dogmatic in our beliefs. We stay xenophobic, imperialistic, we believe in taxes and policing and destroying that which is "other." The violence to the trolls is just the most horrific iteration of this. If there is one point to The Long War, it's that we must learn to coexist. What we are doing to our world has ramifications. Will a Long Earth open up to save us?

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary science fiction journey begun in their New York Times bestseller The Long Earth.

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by “stepping.” A new “America”—Valhalla—is emerging more than a million steps from Datum—our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government.

Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before."

Ok, firstly, I've been eagerly awaiting this book since the first in the series came out last year and was subsequently awesome, making it onto my top ten list for last year. Secondly, I think it's totally funny that seeing as Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are friends and I saw the two of them AND Stephen Baxter all at the last North American Discworld Convention, that their books would come out on the same day. Problem though... which to read first?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real..."

Not sure if I'm excited for this or not... because really, I love Neil's YA writing so much more...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey is one of the pseudonym's used by Scottish writer Elizabeth Mackintosh. While caring for her invalid father she took to writing. The name Josephine Tey comes from her mother's first name and her grandmother's surname. There is not much known about Tey, but that has just added to her mystique. Her most famous character is Inspector Alan Grant, whose solving of the murder of the Princes in the tower in The Daughter of Time led to a renewed interest in Richard III. In 1990 this book was chosen as the greatest mystery novel of all time.

Unlike her contemporaries, Tey never resorted to formulas, but "to tell different sorts of story, in different ways." Yet her success did lead to other authors having a fascination with her. Agatha Christie supposedly based her character Muriel Wills in Three Act Tragedy on Tey to skewer her. While, more lovingly, Nicola Upson is currently writing a series of mysteries were Josephine Tey is the detective, much in the vein of J.J. Murphy and Dorothy Parker and Joanna Challis and Daphne Du Maurier. This enduring love of Tey has made "her place in the pantheon of mystery writers... unassailable."

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Book Review - Margery Allingham's The Crime at Black Dudley

The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Book 1) by Margery Allingham
Published by: Felony and Mayhem
Publication Date: 1929
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

George Abbershaw is indebted to his friend Wyatt Petrie. Wyatt is having a large house party at his remote ancestral pile Black Dudley and to help out George he has invited Meggie Oliphant. George is a man of science, being a pathologist, and he has decided that his new feelings that have arisen for Meggie must be tested out at close quarters to determine if it is infatuation or love. Infatuation can run it's course and for the most part be ignored, but love, well, love is another thing. At dinner, sitting next to Meggie, they gossip about the strange array of people gathered. From Wyatt's invalid Uncle Colonel Coombe who lives year round at Black Dudley, to Benjamin Dawlish, a man with the hair of Beethoven and an implacable manner, to the foolish society fop, Albert Campion, who no one remembers inviting. The group seems so diverse, it's almost as if they were all brought there for a reason.

After dinner in the great hall, the guests eyes alight on a sinister dagger rather ostentatiously displayed over one of the fireplaces. Wyatt tells of a family legend of death and tragedy, that imbued the dagger with the power to bleed if it was held by a killer. In later generations, this has devolved into a ritual, a game of hide and seek where the dagger is passed back and forth among the guests in a darkened house, the one left with the dagger being the "killer." The guests are eager to take part in this ritual and soon the house is darkened and the "game" begins. Abbershaw views the game as insipid and uses the opportunity to go outside and check on his car, were he runs into Campion. The two amiably chat and return to the house together, where something is most definitely wrong.

Colonel Coombe has had a heart attack and been taken upstairs. Soon Abbershaw learns that Coombe is dead and is asked to hastily sign a cremation order. Abbershaw, very suspicious, gets a quick look at Coombe and decides that the man has most definitely been murdered. Though Coombe's thuggish friends, led by Dawlish, make it quite clear to Abbershaw, that not signing the cremation order is not an option. Something sinister is at Black Dudley. Come morning, all the guests realize they are captives. Dawlish has lost something of value and no one leaves until it is returned. If his item is returned, will he let everyone go though?

It is interesting to me that this is considered the first Albert Campion book seeing as, while a memorable character, he is by no means the star, that task is left to the too upright and altruistic Doctor Abbershaw. In fairness, The Crime at Black Dudley's blurb did warn me that Albert Campion is "in a supporting role, for the first and last time." I just thought he'd have a bigger part... apparently we have Allingham's American publisher to thank for Campion taking center stage. Originally she wanted to have Abbershaw be the star of her new mystery series. All I have to say to that is snooze fest. Campion is far more interesting in that he has flexible morals, but more importantly, was created to make fun of Lord Peter Wimsey. And right now, anyone taking the piss out of Dorothy L. Sayers gets two big thumbs up from me.

Personally, I can't decide yet as to whether I'll like Campion... he was too peripheral and there were just too many characters running around and mucking things up that I had to juggle. There really has to be some way to find the perfect balance of number of characters to narrative. But then there's authors like George R. R. Martin who are juggling so many they need an exhaustive appendix, yet I can keep them all straight, then there's The Crime at Black Dudley, where some of the characters are forgettable even to others in the book. I mean Martin is actually described as "just a stray young man" with black hair! How am I to remember anything about Martin with this vague description thrown in amongst all the the guests and thugs wandering around this house with impossible and improbable secret passageways and staircases and old areas that were part of the monastery? How I ask you? Also, throw in three characters with W's for names, Wyatt, Watt, and Whitby, add three doctors, and three ladies and I didn't care enough to keep track of who was who. Never mind that the ending was out of left field with no hints, by the end I didn't care, I was just glad it was over.

The main reason I disliked The Crime at Black Dudley was the mysterious organized crime element. Organized crime to me just doesn't feel British enough to my bones. While I know that's absurd, when I get a country house murder, I expect something more Gosford Park and less John Gotti. Sure, organized crime can be interesting... there was a time in my life I found it very interesting. Yet, with the hulking and stone-faced Dawlish as the "head" of the organization I was left cold. He didn't seem to have any intelligence or ingeniousness to lead a world wide crime syndicate. Also he seemed rather hesitant to kill. I'm sorry, but at the point where you've got tons of people locked up, and over half a million pounds on the line, just start killing them to get what you want. Leaving them alive gives them opportunity to escape... which of course, from the heroes point of view is felicitous, but unrealistic in my mind. Perhaps it's my dislike of the stolid Abbershaw that is making me see things through the eyes of the criminals... but really, kill them, be done with it.

Reading this fresh on the heels of Allingham's wonderful The White Cottage Mystery, I was struck by a similarity between the two. When I read Carola Dunn's first Daisy Dalrymble book, Death at Wentwater Court, it struck me as interesting that she let the criminal go free. I thought that this was an interesting twist on the mysteries of the 20s. Little did I know that Margery Allingham was also very fluid in the punishment meted out on criminals. Allingham definitely has a scale she uses to judge the guilty, and sometimes the scale does not point "go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $20." While I find it refreshing... two books in a row, well... it was repetative. Also, if at this point you're thinking, dammit, she's spoiled the book for me... remember the killer comes out of left field, so, no I didn't. I wasn't able to guess the killer and neither will you, the punishment is immaterial in this case.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross
Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive. Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect adornment of plainness. But Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose. Inspired by a short story written by Emile Zola, Belle Epoque is set at the height of bohemian Paris, when the city was at the peak of decadence, men and women were at their most beautiful, and morality was at its most depraved."

Sounds interesting, in particular because it's based on an Emile Zola short story.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Anna Van Housen has a secret.

A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians and mentalists in 1920s New York. For Anna, the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini—or so Marguerite claims—handcuffs and sleight-of-hand illusions have never been much of a challenge. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her mother: because while Marguerite's powers may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people's feelings and foretell the future.

But as Anna's powers intensify, she experiences frightening visions of her mother in peril, which lead her to explore the abilities she's tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a society that studies people with gifts like hers, she begins to wonder if there's more to life than keeping secrets.

As her visions become darker and her powers spin out of her control, Anna is forced to rethink all she's ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna's visions merely illusions? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite's tricks?

From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, with the temptations of Jazz Age New York—and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny."

Interested, because there's only so many times I can read The Night Circus... but it freaks me out that the cover model looks like a cross between Nicole Kidman and Emily Deschanel...

Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Pantheon
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A wonderful new stand-alone novel from the internationally beloved and best-selling Alexander McCall Smith: a story that explores the nature of love—and trains—through a series of intertwined romantic tales.

The rocking of the train car, the sound of its wheels on the rails . . . there's something special about this form of travel that makes for easy conversation. Which is just what happens to the four strangers who meet in Trains and Lovers. As they travel by rail from Edinburgh to London, they entertain one another with tales of how trains have changed their lives. A young, keen-eyed Scotsman recounts how he turned a friendship with a young female coworker into a romance by spotting an anachronistic train in an eighteenth century painting. An Australian woman shares how her parents fell in love and spent their life together running a railroad siding in the remote Australian Outback. A middle-aged American arts patron sees two young men saying good-bye in the station and recalls his youthful crush on another man. And a young Englishman describes how exiting his train at the wrong station allowed him to meet an intriguing woman whom he impulsively invited to dinner—and into his life. Here is Alexander McCall Smith at his most enchanting."

I don't just marvel at Alexander McCall Smith's prodigious output, but his quality control as well. Not only does he write like a bazillion books a year, but they are all so well written and awesome. How does he do it?

Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban
Published by: NYRB Classics
Publication Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Life in a city can be atomizing, isolating. And it certainly is for William G. and Neaera H., the strangers at the center of Russell Hoban’s surprisingly heartwarming novel Turtle Diary. William, a clerk at a used-book store, lives in a rooming house after a divorce that has left him without home or family. Neaera is a successful writer of children’s books, who, in her own estimation, “looks like the sort of spinster who doesn’t keep cats and is not a vegetarian. Looks…like a man’s woman who hasn’t got a man.” Entirely unknown to each other, they are both drawn to the turtle tank at the London zoo with “minds full of turtle thoughts,” wondering how the turtles might be freed. And then comes the day when Neaera walks into William’s bookstore, and together they form an unlikely partnership to make what seemed a crazy dream become a reality."

Russell Hoban! If you don't know who he is, you lead a sad life because it doesn't have Frances in it or Emmet Otter!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Book Review - Margery Allingham's The White Cottage Mystery

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Bloomsbury Reader
Publication Date: 1928
Format: Kindle, 168 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Jerry Challenor is driving slowly to London. Taking the sleepy back roads and obscure thoroughfares. He is in no hurry, so when he sees an attractive girl alight from a bus with a large burden, he offers her a ride home. She lives at the White Cottage, which is very close at hand. After he drops the girl off he notices that the weather is in for a change and he stops to put the roof up on his convertible and gets to chatting to the local policeman. While relaxing by the side of the road the two men hear the report of a gunshot. They rush to the White Cottage, but someone is dead.

As it happens, Jerry's father is the famous Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challenor, and Jerry calls him in to handle this mysterious murder. The victim is one Eric Crowther who lived next to the White Cottage in the grey monstrosity, the Dene. No one morns his passing. Every single person who knew him wanted him dead and everyone in the house had means and motive. The shotgun that did the deed was in the corner of the dining room, so anyone could have wandered in and blown him away. For personal reasons Jerry hopes fervently that it is not Norah, the attractive girl he gave a lift to. W.T. is baffled. He could easily arrest anyone in the house with circumstantial evidence, but it's the truth he wants. With Jerry in tow, W.T. heads to the continent and tracks down every lead he can think of... but will he ever make an arrest?

Someone at the BBC needs to make this into a movie right now! This would make a wonderful adaptation, much in the vein of the recent retelling of The Lady Vanishes with Tuppence Middleton. I'm picturing Laurence Fox as the lovestruck son Jerry and his real life father, James Fox, for W.T. Challenor. Perhaps Jenna-Louise Coleman as Norah? I'm telling you, it would be awesome. There was just something so fresh and vital about this story that I can see it appealing to anyone with a love of British period dramas and murder mysteries.

After having rather a rocky go of it with Dorothy L. Sayers, I was starting to become a little leery of my "Golden Summer" scheme. What if all these other hallowed authors where of the same ilk? Great as precursors, as proto-mysteries, as a jumping off point for later authors, but lacking that something that made them timeless and a great read till this day (Agatha Christie is exempt from these thoughts because she is awesome). What if the "Golden Age" wasn't really that golden? Thankfully The White Cottage Mystery has changed my mind and just hardened my heart to Dorothy L. Sayers. Unlike Sayers who fills her books with nonsense and ramblings, there was something so clean and spare to Margery Allingham's book that I wanted to give her book a great big hug. Not literally, because I think that might shatter my Kindle. No nonsense, no fluff, just a great whodunit that reminded me on more then one occasion of the great short stories that Daphne Du Maurier is known for. The style and turn of phrase, not to mention the setting were reminiscent of Du Maurier. And trust me, this is a true compliment from me if I'm comparing Allingham to Du Maurier.

Like Du Maurier and her obsession with the Brontes, Margery Allingham has created in Eric Crowther a character with some very interesting Bronte overtones. It's almost as if Allingham wanted to create a character as psychologically manipulative, hostile, and threatening as Heathcliff and then gleefully kill him. The fact that Crowther, through his machinations and games, is able to keep not only good people in line, but evil degenerates, shows the force of his character. He is an evil man and I echo the sentiments of Jerry that perhaps his death was an "act of God." As for the murderer... well... wait till you get to the final chapter of this lean mean mystery. My faith has been restored by this "act of God" and I will now pick up the first Campion mystery, not with cringing hands, but with a joyful song in my heart.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham was born to a very literary family. Her father, mother, and aunt where editors of literary journals. Yet her parents also took to writing. Margery's father found fame as a pulp fiction writer and her mother contributed stories to women's magazines. When Margery was eight she earned her first fee as a writer for a story that ran in her aunt's magazine. As a teenager, she went to school to correct a stammer she had. While there she met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter, whom she would collaborate with. He designed many of her book's dust jackets and even completed her final Campion novel for her after her untimely death from Breast Cancer.

She had her first book published when she was nineteen. Blackkerchief Dick, while well regarded, was not a financial success. It was when Margery decided to write mysteries that her career really took off. The creation of Albert Campion, to ape Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, seemed to have the same natural light-heartedness as the author and soon became a hit with her readers. Allingham went on to write eighteen novels and twenty short stories about her gentleman sleuth possibly born of royalty operating under a pseudonym. Campion has since entered the pantheon of famous literary detectives and put Allingham on par with Christie and Sayers as a doyenne of Golden Age Detection.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: June 4th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm."

I just recently bought the first in the series, which many studios and book people are banking on being the next Hunger Games... I shall be the judge of that...

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: June 4th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. When a woman arrives with a small wooden carving at the gallery Nicola works at, she can see the object's history and knows that it was named after the Firebird-the mythical creature from an old Russian fable.

Compelled to know more, Nicola follows a young girl named Anna into the past who leads her on a quest through the glittering backdrops of the Jacobites and Russian courts, unearthing a tale of love, courage, and redemption."

How can that description NOT have you running out and buying this book? I defy you to not want to.

His Clockwork Canary by Beth Ciotta
Published by: Signet
Publication Date: June 4th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"History is repeating itself. For ambitious engineer Simon Darcy, winning Queen Victoria’s competition to recover lost inventions of historical significance is a matter of pride—and redemption. After all, it was Simon’s failed monorail project that left his family destitute, and winning the tournament would surely restore the Darcys’ reputation.

Simon sets his sights high, targeting no less than the infamous time-travel device that forever changed the world by transporting scientists, engineers, and artists from the twentieth century. The Mod technology was banned and supposedly destroyed, but Simon is sure he can re-create it.

His daring plan draws the attention of Willie G., the Clockwork Canary, London’s sensationalist reporter. Simon soon discovers that Willie is a male guise for Wilhemina Goodenough, the love of his youth, who left him jilted and bitter. He questions her motives even as he falls prey to her unique charm. As the attraction between the two reignites, Simon realizes that this vixen from his past has secrets that could be the key to his future…as long as he can put their history behind him."

Glorious Darcy's book the second!

Shapshifted by Cassie Alexander
Published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 4th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nurse Edie Spence is once again called upon to save a life…and this time, it’s personal. Can her new community of zombies, vampires, and shapeshifters come to her rescue when she needs them most?

When Edie was fired from her paranormal nursing job at County Hospital, her whole world came crashing down. Now she’s is once again shaken to her core. Her mother is deathly ill and there’s only one thing that will save her: vampire blood. But with the paranormal community shunning Edie, where can she obtain it…without losing her own life in the process?

Edie hopes to procure it at her new job at the clinic across town, where the forces of evil loom large. Vampire gang wars are rampant. Old underground enemies are rising to the surface. And Edie’s zombie ex-boyfriend has arrived at the scene—but is he the same man he used to be? And what should she make of the enigmatic doctor with whom she shares an unexpected connection? She’ll have to figure it out soon, because all hell is about to break loose—literally—and time is running out…

From Cassie Alexander comes the third book in the Edie Spence series."

Ok, I have friends who don't like this series... but you know what? I need to fill the urban fantasy gab left by Sookie being over.

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