I had lots of airplane time in February, so plenty of time to dive head first into a book for uninterrupted reading time. I think that might be a bad thing, as I seem to have been a lot more critical than I usually am. This month: mysterious mayhem checked by a brief nature outing.
Drury Lane's Last Case by Ellery Queen I tend to enjoy stories that feature fictional works by famous artists, if well written and well researched and plausible. This mystery centers on the disappearance of a Shakespeare folio and the substitution of a more rare Shakespeare folio, with a mysterious, rainbow-bearded client and one thousand dollars cash. Drury Lane, former Shakespearean actor now retired because he's lost his hearing, becomes involved in the search for the folio and the unmasking of mysterious strangers. Originally published in the 1930s, the story does show its age a little. The beginning is very long and slow by comparison with the second half of the novel, but that half moves very quickly. Thumm and his daughter Patience are likable characters, but I didn't see the need to introduce some third rate gangsters. Parts were confusing but in the end, a satisfying and unique twist that I cannot imagine any modern writers being willing to use. Not the best Ellery Queen, but a good read nonetheless. (audiobook)
Unto Us A Son is Given by Donna Leon Guido Brunetti has recently become one of my favorite fictional characters, and Donna Leon one of my favorite mystery writers. Her love for Venice and its residents is clear, but she doesn't whitewash the failings of the Italian police or society. In this novel, Guido's father-in-law, the Count, asks him to use his connections to look into the background of someone about whom he has serious concerns. Despite his initial reluctance, Guido does, and this touches off a sequence of actions, including a natural death and a murder, that profoundly affect Guido in a way that other cases have not. I love Guido and Paola's relationship, and I love Leon's depiction of Venice. Another excellent entry in the series.
48 Peaks by Cheryl Suchors I love nature books, and books about hiking in nature, and books about how hiking in nature affect people's lives. Suchors details her quest to climb all 48 peaks in New Hampshire's White Mountains. I wanted to like it. The details of Suchor's training and her relationships with her hiking partners form the majority of the book, with less detail on the wonders of nature that she encountered on the various peaks. And that's one reason I didn't like it: the emphasis was on her obsessive training and her clashes with hiking partners whose hiking philosophies differed from her own. Suchors hiked to tick each mountain off her list, not to enjoy nature, to learn about the environment or the geology or plants, or to enjoy being in nature, and her frustration with people who did hike for enjoyment was dismissive and irritating. I would hate hiking with her. There are few deep introspections offered, but the clear emphasis on just climbing each mountain to climb it, not to enjoy it, detracts from the effort and the narrative in this hiking lover's opinion.
Upstaged by Murder by C. S. Chalinor Rex Graves and his new wife, Helen D'Arcy, are enjoying a night at the local community theater when the murder of the leading lady interrupts the show and delays their move to Edinburgh. I'd never read a book in the series before, and my experience was ambivalent. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. The plot was rather mundane, the suspects not that interesting, and even though the author lived in the UK for several years, the dialogue didn't ring quite true. I didn't quite understand Rex's involvement beyond being interviewed as a witness. Why the inspector let him just interview suspects at will was not really explained well for first-time readers to the series, but I assumed the two were friends who'd worked on previous murder mysteries. Otherwise it seemed like a dereliction of duty. The resolution was no surprise. It's not a bad book, it's just not a good book.
Crewel and Unusual by Molly MacRae Another first in an established series for me, and this one features yarn shop owner Kath Rutledge and her live-in ghost, Geneva. A local bank is being transformed into a gallery for artists and small shop owners, and the murder of one of the shop owners draws Kath and her boyfriend Joe into solving the murder. I freely admit that I went in to the book with two chips on my reader's shoulder: I'm not fond of paranormal mysteries (and I didn't realize this was a paranormal until after I'd started it), and I really dislike it when the amateur detectives think they are smarter than the pros. In Chapter 9, Kath actually says "But I'd be willing to bet Coleridge [law enforcement] smelled a rat. And if he plans to hunt it down, then we'll see if we can't catch it first, even if we ruffle a few feathers." Murder isn't a game, and when it's treated as such I tend to get my reading hackles up. But I did like Joe; in fact, I'd really like to have seen more of him and less of Geneva. Like the previous title, it's not a bad book, it's just not a good book. The plot is a little weak, the ghost aspect not appealing to all readers (and she's a bit of an annoying ghost to boot), but some of the secondary characters interesting.
How to Knit a Murder by Sally Goldenbaum I haven't read all of the Sea Harbor mysteries, but I have enjoyed the ones I've read. This, however, is not my favorite of the titles I've read. I approve of how Ms. Goldenbaum shifts point of view between a handful of main characters, and she handles it deftly because all of these characters are well defined and sympathetic, interesting, and with enough to appeal that the reader can see themselves as Nell, or Ben, or Birdie, or Izzy, or Cass. The characters are all likable (except for the murder victim, of course), and Sea Harbor is the perfect small town where everyone knows and cares about each other and drops by with scones and wise advice. It's a little too perfect, and for some reason, that perfection seemed to be more egregious in this entry, perhaps because the novel dealt with the lifelong repercussions of childhood bullying. And none of the main characters and most of the secondary characters were astonished that such hateful behavior could have happened under their noses. There's very little of Izzy in this entry, a lot of Nell and Birdie, and a great deal of a newcomer to town, Rose, who is murder suspect number one. If Rose and Stella don't become a romantic couple in the future, someone needs to talk to Ms. Goldenbaum about portraying platonic female friendships more realistically, because the gushing and instant intimacy of Rose and Stella was too unrealistic if it's not clearly pointing to a romance. Sea Harbor doesn't appear to have any LBGTQ characters (or any people of color), so it's high time some moved there. The murder is slow to be solved, and the sudden appearance of the clue that solves everything was a little too trite and deus ex machina for me; I prefer a more clever approach where clues are sprinkled throughout the novel and I get to solve it along with the amateurs. But Sea Harbor is always a nice place to visit and wish was real, especially the restaurants.
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