Lots of travel time this month, so lots of time to catch up on reading.
Edgar Allen Poe and the Jewel of Peru by Karen Lee Street Last month I complained about historical books that fail, that transplant 20th and 21st century characters and ideas and social mores into the past, covered with a veneer of pseudo-historicity. I'd read several that fell victim to this idea of what a historical novel should be and I disliked them intensely. This novel is the exact opposite, and succeeds brilliantly where they failed. Edgar Allen Poe and the Jewel of Peru is a perfect example of what a historical novel should be. Ms. Street has undertaken a lot of research on Edgar Allen Poe and the geographical setting to create a brilliant representation of 19th century Philadelphia. She has also created an interesting, unique, and well-written mystery replete with sharply delineated characters and images. Edgar, Sissy, and Muddy, their relationships, and mid-century Philly are carefully constructed. I read the entire book at one go on an airplane, but I would have stayed up late several nights to read this. I truly hope there are more Edgar Allen Poe mysteries to come, and this is one series I would love. Highly recommended/A+
Hopjoy Was Here by Colin Watson Digital reissue of a classic police procedural originally published in 1962. While there are a couple of scenes that induced groans (Ross' seduction, for example, read like a James Bond farce), the book is a clever, well written, and well-paced mystery with enough surprising twists and turns to keep any reader entertained. Character development was not an important part of mysteries in the first half of the twentieth century, so modern readers used to internal dialogues and angst may be disappointed, but the characters are sufficiently fleshed out to allow the reader to sympathize with them. Although characterized as a police procedural, this is not a McBain-type police novel, but rather an English country murder in which the detectives are not the standard amateurs but police and government agents. Clever and enjoyable and a very fast read. Recommended/A
Monday, June 11, 2018
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Middle Sister's May Reads
May heats up quickly and unapologetically here in the desert, which gives me the perfect excuse to crank the swamp cooler down, close the drapes to keep the scorching sun out, and settle down on the couch with a book and iced tea.
Murder, She Knit by Peggy Ehrhart Knitting, New Jersey, a middle aged protagonist--this book was written for me, I thought. Pamela, widowed copyright editor for a knitting magazine, is enjoying late fall: her daughter is coming from college for Thanksgiving, she has a new neighbor who has piqued her curiosity (and her ire), and she's invited a colleague of her late husband to her knitting group's next meeting, which she is hosting in her spotless house. Too bad the night is marred by a murder, and the victim is found under Pamela's bush. Pamela and her neighbor find themselves sleuthing to solve the mystery before Pamela becomes the next victim. The suburban NJ town was very familiar and delightful to visit, although very much gentrified and yuppified and millenialified (a terrible word, I know, but how else to describe a lifestyle where Pamela gets to work from home, make daily visits to the perfect, eco-friendly co-op which only carries locally sourced, non-GMO, certified fair trade items that are reasonably priced?). Part of me found Pamela too good to be true (she keeps her large house effortlessly perfect) but also annoying (she admits that she rewrote articles she's editing after "she just decided what she wanted it to mean and rewrote accordingly." AUGH!!!! If I had had an editor like that, wait, I did--and I complained mightily.), especially her irritation with her neighbor and her jumping to conclusions which invariably turned out to be wrong. The mystery is not too hard to figure out, but also isn't far-fetched, and the clues are subtle but present so readers who like to solve the murder can. I enjoyed the book, and while I'd like to see Pamela not be so perfect, it was a restful visit to a town similar to my old home town in NJ and a quick read, so I'd recommend this as one of the better knitting subgenre cozies currently in print. Unlike a lot of those, you can tell this author probably does know how to knit.
Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney Historical mystery set in England during WWI that makes the mistake so many genre writers make--trying to make the characters 21st century enough to satisfy modern readers while using a historic period to provide atmosphere, technical challenges to the art of detection, and a suitably exotic location and time. It's a good thing this was a quick read, because if it had not been, I'd have been tired of how egalitarian and politically correct (a term I hate but which is perfect for this situation) everyone in the book was and given up on it halfway. There is no one central character, but rather 4 main characters (a female doctor, a female lawyer, a male detective, and a male veteran now policeman) who join forces as an unorthodox and unofficial Scotland Yard team to deal with crime in a London overrun by working women of all kinds, injured soldiers, and gangs. Of course there is a love triangle (she loves him but he loves someone else, who turned him down to marry another who has died in the war). Of course no one bats an eye that these people, largely strangers, set up a house in which to live together and work out of, chaperoned by one's titled mother who is delighted to hobnob with charwomen and prostitutes and only faintly horrified when she learns of the existence of boy prostitutes and who is willing to clean dishes and act completely unlike a titled Lady. Sure. I'll probably pass on any future entries in this series; everyone is too modern in their mannerisms and outlooks, too pc--even the gang leaders. Unbelievable.
Cherringham--A Dinner to Die For by Neil Richards and Matthew Costello Super fast, superficial read. Retired New York cop moves to perfect English village, where everyone is handsome, nice, and able to live very comfortable lives without any means of support. This perfect village is lucky enough to have two, not one but two, top notch restaurants; that is, until it looks like the owner of one is trying to destroy the other. Is he being set up, or is revenge for past indiscretions in their convoluted former lives the reason? Again, slightly annoying characters--Jack the cop who lives on a boat and can whip up gourmet meals in a tiny kitchen and make the perfect martini, and Sarah who may or may not be interested romantically in him but sure spends a lot of time with him if she's not. It's never a good thing when both protagonists grate on your nerves every so slightly. The mystery was okay, the solution okay, the setting okay, the format annoying. Every sentence is its own paragraph. Please. I.e.:
Or-
Something else?
Anna smile at the two of them.
"You'd better go," said Sarah.
A smile from her as she nodded; dinner and post-mortems to come.
Ugh. Spare me. Hate this style with a passion.
My goodness, is it the heat that is making me cranky or were the books that annoying this month?
Murder, She Knit by Peggy Ehrhart Knitting, New Jersey, a middle aged protagonist--this book was written for me, I thought. Pamela, widowed copyright editor for a knitting magazine, is enjoying late fall: her daughter is coming from college for Thanksgiving, she has a new neighbor who has piqued her curiosity (and her ire), and she's invited a colleague of her late husband to her knitting group's next meeting, which she is hosting in her spotless house. Too bad the night is marred by a murder, and the victim is found under Pamela's bush. Pamela and her neighbor find themselves sleuthing to solve the mystery before Pamela becomes the next victim. The suburban NJ town was very familiar and delightful to visit, although very much gentrified and yuppified and millenialified (a terrible word, I know, but how else to describe a lifestyle where Pamela gets to work from home, make daily visits to the perfect, eco-friendly co-op which only carries locally sourced, non-GMO, certified fair trade items that are reasonably priced?). Part of me found Pamela too good to be true (she keeps her large house effortlessly perfect) but also annoying (she admits that she rewrote articles she's editing after "she just decided what she wanted it to mean and rewrote accordingly." AUGH!!!! If I had had an editor like that, wait, I did--and I complained mightily.), especially her irritation with her neighbor and her jumping to conclusions which invariably turned out to be wrong. The mystery is not too hard to figure out, but also isn't far-fetched, and the clues are subtle but present so readers who like to solve the murder can. I enjoyed the book, and while I'd like to see Pamela not be so perfect, it was a restful visit to a town similar to my old home town in NJ and a quick read, so I'd recommend this as one of the better knitting subgenre cozies currently in print. Unlike a lot of those, you can tell this author probably does know how to knit.
Murder in Belgravia by Lynn Brittney Historical mystery set in England during WWI that makes the mistake so many genre writers make--trying to make the characters 21st century enough to satisfy modern readers while using a historic period to provide atmosphere, technical challenges to the art of detection, and a suitably exotic location and time. It's a good thing this was a quick read, because if it had not been, I'd have been tired of how egalitarian and politically correct (a term I hate but which is perfect for this situation) everyone in the book was and given up on it halfway. There is no one central character, but rather 4 main characters (a female doctor, a female lawyer, a male detective, and a male veteran now policeman) who join forces as an unorthodox and unofficial Scotland Yard team to deal with crime in a London overrun by working women of all kinds, injured soldiers, and gangs. Of course there is a love triangle (she loves him but he loves someone else, who turned him down to marry another who has died in the war). Of course no one bats an eye that these people, largely strangers, set up a house in which to live together and work out of, chaperoned by one's titled mother who is delighted to hobnob with charwomen and prostitutes and only faintly horrified when she learns of the existence of boy prostitutes and who is willing to clean dishes and act completely unlike a titled Lady. Sure. I'll probably pass on any future entries in this series; everyone is too modern in their mannerisms and outlooks, too pc--even the gang leaders. Unbelievable.
Cherringham--A Dinner to Die For by Neil Richards and Matthew Costello Super fast, superficial read. Retired New York cop moves to perfect English village, where everyone is handsome, nice, and able to live very comfortable lives without any means of support. This perfect village is lucky enough to have two, not one but two, top notch restaurants; that is, until it looks like the owner of one is trying to destroy the other. Is he being set up, or is revenge for past indiscretions in their convoluted former lives the reason? Again, slightly annoying characters--Jack the cop who lives on a boat and can whip up gourmet meals in a tiny kitchen and make the perfect martini, and Sarah who may or may not be interested romantically in him but sure spends a lot of time with him if she's not. It's never a good thing when both protagonists grate on your nerves every so slightly. The mystery was okay, the solution okay, the setting okay, the format annoying. Every sentence is its own paragraph. Please. I.e.:
Or-
Something else?
Anna smile at the two of them.
"You'd better go," said Sarah.
A smile from her as she nodded; dinner and post-mortems to come.
Ugh. Spare me. Hate this style with a passion.
My goodness, is it the heat that is making me cranky or were the books that annoying this month?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)