Middle Sister's Mid-Month Review

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