Hello, Gentle Readers! In order to avoid having another really long post, like August's, I'm going to post a couple of mid-month reviews.
Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge Excellent story featuring Agatha Christie as a secondary character. Our amateur detective is Phyllida Bright, friend of Mrs. Christie's who works as the housekeeper at Mallowan hall which the Grande Dame shares with her second husband Max Mallowan. An avid reader of her friend/employer's books, who, we're led to believe, even makes suggestions that Mrs. Christie utilizes, Phyllida decides to use her little gray cells when an unexpected guest to weekend house party is killed in the library. Then a second murder occurs, and the fear mounts. Phyllida is a good choice for a detective in a country house setting--she straddles upstairs and downstairs, so can be privy to conversations and encounters with the guests in multiple ways. We're used to middle-aged, brusque or silent housekeepers, and Phyllida, with her bright red hair and flowered dresses that sound almost couture, is anything but a staid, gray, disapproving, uniformed servant. The hint of a possible future romance with Bradford is appealing. The writing is good, the pace and setting are perfect, parodying the weekend country house murder mysteries Agatha Christie was known for. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it lovers of mysteries, cosy mysteries, and Agatha Christie. (Net Galley)
The Egyptian Cross Murder by Ellery Queen I vaguely remembering watching Ellery Queen on television as a child, but I don't think I'd ever read any books until I became an adult. My library recently acquired this audiobook, and I thought this would be a perfect accompaniment to the never ending summer weeding. I was shocked to learn the book was published in 1932, because the opening salvo is the grim and unsettling discovery of a beheaded, crucified murder victim. Enter Ellery Queen, assisted this time not by his father, Inspector Richard Queen, but by his former professor, a neighbor of another victim. Then a third body is found... Despite the gruesome nature of the murders, the book is not gory or sensational. For those who like books where modern technology is not the crutch that helps the mystery be solved, the re-release of older titles like this is a boon. Recommended (audiobook)
The Two Isabellas of King John by Kristen McQuinn Ms. McQuinn tackles a tough job: writing a biography about two medieval women about whom so little is written, one is nearly invisible. King John of England, brother of Richard the Lionheart, he of Magna Carta fame and fictional Robot Hood infamy, was married to two women: Isabella of Gloucester and Isabelle of Angouleme. It is hard to tackle even well-known historical figures who lived 900 years ago, but to try to research two nearly invisible people is an enormous task, and sadly, Ms. McQuinn stumbles at it. There are only a few facts known about Isabella: she was an only child who brought a substantial wealth to Henry II, John's father, when she was his ward after her father died; she and John were engaged for more than 10 years and only married after Richard became king and insisted; John annulled their marriage just before he became king; Isabelle was actually sent to live with her for a short period; she was childless and she died. That's it--those are the facts we know about her. There is more information on Isabelle in the historical record, and even a handful of letters she wrote herself. She was anointed John's queen and bore his heir to the throne, Henry III. Unlike Isabella, Isabelle was mentioned in several contemporary chronicles, although these historical chroniclers appear to have disliked her a great deal and do not record her in a flattering manner. It's a herculean task to try to and write biographies for women about whom so little is known. Ms. McQuinn attempts to get around that by talking about how medieval noblewomen in general were educated, their general expectations from life, general information about what other medieval queens knew and did, especially their mother-in-law, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and interpreting what their childhoods, education, and expectations likely were. But because of the dearth of material, Ms. McQuinn begins repeating the same facts after just a couple of chapters, albeit attempting to use them to talk about different topics. We read about Isabella's childlessness and the possible reasons for it in several different chapters (her life, her marriage, life with John, medieval fertility), and sometimes the sentences are virtually identical. There is much repetition of ideas, actions, and arguments, and no original scholarship by Ms. McQuinn. She makes statements such as "by disposition a proud woman," but then does not offer real substantive proof of that characterization. In Chapter 6, Ms. McQuinn loses the impartiality that biographers and historians must maintain to lend any credence to their work with statements such as "it is sad she had no friends," an interpretation without any merit. There is barely a mention of these woman and none about their courtiers; how can we possibly infer she had no friends? The final chapter is an interesting idea: Ms. McQuinn looks at how works of fiction have recreated the two Isabelles because she argues that these fictional representations can shed light on the historical character. No, Ms. McQuinn, they don't. Fictional characterizations are just that, fiction, and in these two instances, there is not even enough material to say that these were somewhat rooted in historical fact. I might have accepted this as first draft of a lower level college report, but I would have returned it to my student marked up with a lot of red comments and things that needed to be fixed or addressed. There is not really enough material here for a book. Heavy editing might have saved and improved parts of it, but this cannot be considered a scholarly contribution to medieval studies or women's studies. But I do now know that dozen or fewer facts about these two queens, which is all that history knows about them. This book does nothing to bring them to life. (Net Galley)
Unearthing the Secret Garden by Marta McDowell If you loved The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as a child, as I did, you and I belong to select group of adults who yearn for their own secret garden, lush, filled with beautiful blooms, secret and private, and surrounded by a high wall to allow us to escape from the everyday, humdrum world. If you loved that book, you will love this book, too. Ms. McDowell has opened an eminently readable history of Ms. Burnett's own life, and her life as a gardener, by focusing on three gardens that Ms. Burnett planted and nurtured at three of her homes: one in England, one in New York, and one in Bermuda. Each garden was different, and each garden was special. Each garden is described in lovely terms and when possible, accompanied by many photographs. I loved seeing the real secret garden, where Burnett wrote, and reading her own essay about her very special robin. I loved the biography of Burnett as seen through her gardens and flower choices, and the final chapter by her great-granddaughter was a joy. Lavishly illustrated with photos from the various houses showing the gardens (oh, how I with there was color photography in the early twentieth century!) and those bits that still remain at her house in England, one can truly understand why The Secret Garden was the amazing book it was and remains--Burnett's love of flowers and gardening, and her innate understanding of the life cycles of flowers, plants, trees, nature itself, weave through her books and through Ms. McDowell's appreciation. The book is subtitled "The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett," and anyone reading this book will be equally inspired. This is a great gift for a garden lover or someone who read The Secret Garden over and over as a child, and who longs to escape back to it, if only for a little while. What a wonderful book, and truly one of my favorites this year. (Net Galley)
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