NinieB thinks chronologically--Third thoughts

Esto es una continuación del tema NinieB thinks chronologically--the Second Sequence.

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NinieB thinks chronologically--Third thoughts

1NinieB
Jul 31, 2021, 9:48 pm



I'm Ninie (rhymes with shiny) and I'm an avid reader in beautiful upstate New York.

Update: After a slow start to the year, I've been reading a lot of books. I'm wondering what the rest of the year will bring.

*****

When I was thinking about my theme for this year, and what I've liked when I've participated over the last two years, I kept coming back to time. I've been keeping a list of books by their year of publication. While I don't need to read a book for every year, as I did in 2019-2020, I do like to be able to see that I'm reading over a wide range of literary time.

So this year, my categories are time itself. You'll find every book I read in 2021 in one of the first eight categories. I'll also have a couple of special categories for reading projects.

2NinieB
Editado: Jul 31, 2021, 9:51 pm



1782: Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
1796: Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth by Frances Burney

3NinieB
Editado: Dic 24, 2021, 8:02 pm



1814: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
1839: Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau
1841: Adventures of Susan Hopley; or, Circumstantial Evidence by Catherine Crowe
1843: The Annotated Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
1847: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
1850: La Vendée: An Historical Romance by Anthony Trollope
1855: The Warden by Anthony Trollope
1857: Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
1858: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope
1861: Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
1861: The Executor by Margaret Oliphant
1861-63: The Rector and The Doctor's Family by Margaret Oliphant
1862: The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson by Anthony Trollope
1863: Salem Chapel by Margaret Oliphant
1863: Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope
1865: The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll (& annotated by Martin Gardner)
1870: Squire Arden by Margaret Oliphant
1870: The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
1871: Lady Susan by Jane Austen
1874: For Love and Life by Margaret Oliphant
1879: The Cloven Foot by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
1892: The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
1900: Boy: A Sketch by Marie Corelli

4NinieB
Editado: Ago 31, 2021, 6:08 pm



1901: My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
1907: The Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle
1909: A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
1912: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
1917: Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
1918: Dead Fingers by Elisabeth Sutton

5NinieB
Editado: Dic 30, 2021, 6:06 pm



1921: Rain by W. Somerset Maugham
1923: The Conquered by Naomi Mitchison
1924: Cold Harbour by Francis Brett Young
1925: The Monster by Harrington Hext
1925: The Snake Pit by Sigrid Undset
1926: Death at Swaythling Court by J. J. Connington
1926: Enough Rope: Poems by Dorothy Parker
1926: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1929: Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth
1929: A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
1930: Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
1930: The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace
1931: Maigret Meets a Milord by Georges Simenon
1931: England in Transition by M. Dorothy George
1933: The Claverton Mystery by John Rhode
1934: The Adventures of Ellery Queen by Ellery Queen
1934: Now in November by Josephine Johnson
1934: A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh
1934: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
1935: The Spanish Cape Mystery by Ellery Queen
1936: Halfway House by Ellery Queen
1936: Wings above the Diamantina by Arthur W. Upfield
1936: The Death Angel by Clyde B. Clason
1936: The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay
1937: Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
1937: The Door Between by Ellery Queen
1937: Winds of Evil by Arthur W. Upfield
1937: The Case Is Closed by Patricia Wentworth
1937: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
1937: Miss Buncle, Married by D. E. Stevenson
1938: Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell
1938: The Devil to Pay by Ellery Queen
1938: The Four of Hearts by Ellery Queen
1938: The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield
1939: The Brandons by Angela Thirkell
1939: Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
1939: The Man Who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
1939: Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth
1939: The Dragon's Teeth by Ellery Queen
1939: The Mystery of Swordfish Reef by Arthur W. Upfield
1939: The Cat Saw Murder by D. B. Olsen
1939: The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
1940: Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell
1940: The New Adventures of Ellery Queen by Ellery Queen
1940: Bushranger of the Skies by Arthur W. Upfield

6NinieB
Editado: Dic 26, 2021, 11:27 pm



1941: Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell
1941: The Turquoise Shop by Frances Crane
1942: Calamity Town by Ellery Queen
1942: Marling Hall by Angela Thirkell
1942: Hanged for a Sheep by Frances and Richard Lockridge
1943: There Was an Old Woman by Ellery Queen
1943: Growing Up by Angela Thirkell
1943: The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson
1944: Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
1944: Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
1944: Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer
1944: The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
1945: The Murderer Is a Fox by Ellery Queen
1946: The Four Graces by D. E. Stevenson
1946: The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
1946: The Dark Beasts by Frank Belknap Long
1947: Close Quarters by Michael Gilbert
1948: Ten Days' Wonder by Ellery Queen
1949: The Restless Hands by Bruno Fischer
1949: Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen
1951: A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell
1952: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
1953: Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
1953: The Golden Age of Homespun by Jared van Wagenen
1955: The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon
1955: Keep Him My Country by Mary Durack
1958: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
1958: Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton

7NinieB
Editado: Nov 22, 2021, 6:58 am



1961: The Plague and the Fire by James Leasor
1962: Window on the Square by Phyllis A. Whitney
1962: Castle Dor by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch & Daphne du Maurier
1963: Gun before Butter by Nicolas Freeling
1963: Darkwater by Dorothy Eden
1963: Cooper's Creek by Alan Moorehead
1966: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
1967: My Foe Outstretch'd beneath the Tree by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley
1968: The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton
1976: Filmi, Filmi, Inspector Ghote by H. R. F. Keating
1978: Honeybath's Haven by Michael Innes
1978: A Pinch of Snuff by Reginald Hill
1979: The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod
1979: Inspector Ghote Draws a Line by H. R. F. Keating
1980: The Withdrawing Room by Charlotte MacLeod
1980: The Lime Pit by Jonathan Valin

8NinieB
Editado: Dic 25, 2021, 7:06 am



1981: The Palace Guard by Charlotte MacLeod
1981: A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey
1981: Lord Mullion's Secret by Michael Innes
1981: The Newspaper of Claremont Street by Elizabeth Jolley
1981: Go West, Inspector Ghote by H. R. F. Keating
1982: The Anglo-Saxons by James Campbell, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald; general editor, James Campbell
1983: The Bilbao Looking Glass by Charlotte MacLeod
1983: Appleby and Honeybath by Michael Innes
1984: The Convivial Codfish by Charlotte MacLeod
1984: Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken
1984: Carson's Conspiracy by Michael Innes
1985: Murder Is Academic by P. M. Carlson
1985: The Plain Old Man by Charlotte MacLeod
1986: The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
1986: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
1987: Death Locked In (anthology)
1987: Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
1988: The Recycled Citizen by Charlotte MacLeod
1990: The Magic Flute by P. Craig Russell
1995: When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
2000: The Stolen Blue by Judith Van Gieson

9NinieB
Editado: Dic 25, 2021, 7:10 am



2006: Moonlight Downs by Adrian Hyland
2007: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
2010: Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini
2011: Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
2011: The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
2012: A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths
2012: Rites by Sophie Coulombeau
2013: W Is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
2014: Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
2014: Strange Gods by Annamaria Alfieri
2020: Camino Winds by John Grisham

10NinieB
Editado: Dic 4, 2021, 8:15 pm

BingoDOG Card 2



1. (nature or environment) Cooper's Creek by Alan Moorehead
2. (title describes you) The Restless Hands by Bruno Fischer
3. (contains a love story) Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken
4. (you heartily recommend) The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
5. (impulse read) Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
6. (suggested by another generation) The Four Graces by D. E. Stevenson
7. (time word in title) Ten Days' Wonder by Ellery Queen
8. (by/about marginalized group) Bushranger of the Skies by Arthur W. Upfield
9. (less than 20 LT members) Dead Fingers by Elisabeth Sutton
10. (classical element in title) The Plague and the Fire by James Leasor
11. (place I'd like to visit) The Snake Pit by Sigrid Undset
12. (light or dark word in title) Darkwater by Dorothy Eden
13. (read a CAT) The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll
14. (new-to-you author) A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
15. (arts & recreation) The Mystery of Swordfish Reef by Arthur W. Upfield
16. (senior citizen protagonist) The Cat Saw Murder by D. B. Olsen
17. (type of building in title) The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
18. (less than 200 pages) Lord Mullion's Secret by Michael Innes
19. (2 authors) The Murderer Is a Fox by Ellery Queen
20. (character you'd be friends with) Marling Hall by Angela Thirkell
21. (one-word title) Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau
22. (about history) The Golden Age of Homespun by Jared van Wagenen
23. (made you laugh) Miss Buncle, Married by D. E. Stevenson
24. (Southern hemisphere) The Newspaper of Claremont Street by Elizabeth Jolley
25. (about or contains magic) The Magic Flute by P. Craig Russell

11NinieB
Editado: Oct 19, 2021, 10:04 pm

H.R.F. Keating's 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books

Keating published his list in Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books, with his commentary on each book.



1. Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
2. Gun before Butter by Nicolas Freeling
3. The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace
4. The Thinking Machine by Jacques Futrelle
5. Calamity Town by Ellery Queen
6. A Pinch of Snuff by Reginald Hill
7. The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
8. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

12NinieB
Editado: Dic 25, 2021, 7:11 am

Non-genre fiction by women (Virago Modern Classics, Persephone, etc.)



1. Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
2. Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell
3. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
4. Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
5. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell
6. The Conquered by Naomi Mitchison
7. Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
9. Gone to Earth by Mary Webb
10. Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell
11. The Rector and The Doctor's Family by Mrs Oliphant
12. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter
13. Castle Dor by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch & Daphne du Maurier
14. Now in November by Josephine Johnson
15. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
16. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
17. Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell
18. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
19. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
20. Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth by Frances Burney
21. Marling Hall by Angela Thirkell
22. The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
23. Growing Up by Angela Thirkell
24. The Newspaper of Claremont Street by Elizabeth Jolley
25. Miss Buncle, Married by D. E. Stevenson
26. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
27. Salem Chapel by Margaret Oliphant
28. The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson
29. The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
30. Squire Arden by Mrs. Oliphant
31. The Four Graces by D. E. Stevenson
32. Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau
33. The Snake Pit by Sigrid Undset
34. Rites by Sophie Coulombeau

13NinieB
Editado: Jul 31, 2021, 9:59 pm

Held for special projects

14NinieB
Editado: Jul 31, 2021, 9:59 pm

Welcome back! Happy to see you all here!

15rabbitprincess
Jul 31, 2021, 10:24 pm

Happy third thread! Looks like 1921 to 1940 is particularly good to you for reading material :)

16MissWatson
Ago 1, 2021, 7:54 am

Happy new thread! I see so many familiar titles in your lists...

17Helenliz
Ago 1, 2021, 8:09 am

Happy new thread.

18NinieB
Editado: Ago 1, 2021, 10:37 am

>15 rabbitprincess: Thanks, RP! My comfort zone is indeed the golden age mystery in the 1930s.

>16 MissWatson: Thank you, Birgit! I do seem to be focused on the classics this year.

>17 Helenliz: Thanks, Helen!

19pamelad
Ago 1, 2021, 5:34 pm

>12 NinieB: I enjoyed so many of the books on this list that I have high hope for the ones I haven't read.

Good start on the Bingo!

20NinieB
Ago 1, 2021, 6:54 pm

>19 pamelad: That's good news, Pam, and I'm looking forward to your reviews.

My tactic this time for the Bingo card is to focus initially on the difficult squares!

21NinieB
Ago 1, 2021, 10:21 pm

A High Wind in Jamaica is a most interesting 1929 novel by Richard Hughes. It explores children's savageness through the story of the Bas-Thornton children, who end up on a pirate ship in the Caribbean. How they individually respond to successive changes in the environment is particularly fascinating.

I was somewhat surprised to be reading an adult book about children in such quick succession after The Greengage Summer; it helped me think more critically about each. Since each are under 200 pages, they are a good paired read.

22VivienneR
Ago 2, 2021, 12:43 am

Happy new thread! I love reading the lists again, and always find a BB or three.

23NinieB
Ago 2, 2021, 7:20 am

>22 VivienneR: Thank you, Vivienne! I'm always happy to provide inspiration!

24christina_reads
Ago 2, 2021, 3:32 pm

Happy new thread! Eagerly following along, as always. :)

25NinieB
Ago 2, 2021, 4:29 pm

>24 christina_reads: Thanks, Christina--it's great having you along!

26NinieB
Ago 2, 2021, 8:49 pm

The Golden Age of Homespun by Jared van Wagenen is all about the "farm life, the household handicrafts, and the rural occupations" of the antebellum period in upstate New York--roughly 1800 to 1860. Chapters describe land clearing, wheat and other grain farming, log cabins, milling, blacksmithing, carpentering, tanning, and many other necessary industries in rural New York (and no doubt surrounding states) in an era when small local industry was the rule. Two chapters are devoted to fibers, flax and wool. I had trouble following the discussion of farm implements but no doubt someone more mechanically minded would have better luck. Interesting for those wanting to know more about the practical side of life before the industrial era in the US.

27NinieB
Ago 4, 2021, 5:45 pm

The Murderer Is a Fox by Ellery Queen finds Ellery once again in Wrightsville, which we now learn is in upstate New York. He's investigating a 12-year-old murder which has never stopped haunting Davy Fox, a war hero (World War II) with PTSD. I was surprised to note that this is number 19 in the series.

Filmi, Filmi, Inspector Ghote is the 10th in the series by H. R. F. Keating. Ghote is appointed to lead the investigation into the death of Bollywood superstar Dhartiraj. Awed by the famous and powerful people he encounters at Talkiestan Studios, Ghote struggles with a murder where all leads seem to dry up to nothing.

28NinieB
Ago 6, 2021, 5:07 pm

The Cat Saw Murder by D. B. Olsen (aka Dolores Hitchens) is set in the fictional Breakers Beach, California, near Los Angeles. There, 70-year-old Miss Rachel Murdock visits her niece Lily Stickelmann in the shabby beachside rooming house where Lily lives. Miss Rachel brings with her the cat, Samantha, who inherited the fortune of Miss Rachel's deceased sister. Miss Rachel is immediately aware that Lily is under great pressure from mysterious creditors for debts that Lily refuses to discuss. Miss Rachel is also shocked when Samantha nearly eats poisoned meat. When murder takes place, Miss Rachel--already a mystery movie and novel addict--discovers that the actual investigation of crime is fascinating as well. Fortunately, friendly Detective Lieutenant Stephen Mayhew of the Breakers Beach police allows Miss Rachel to help with the investigation.

Once I got into this 1939 novel, I greatly enjoyed it, even though one situation involving the cat was dubious. I did not anticipate the solution to the puzzle.

29NinieB
Ago 7, 2021, 6:26 pm

The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths is the third in the Ruth Galloway series. Since I'm always a fan of archaeology, I like this series, plus it offers lots of ongoing drama among the continuing characters. I do wish Ruth had had a little more archaeology to do in this outing, but it was interesting seeing her struggle with motherhood.

30NinieB
Ago 10, 2021, 9:50 pm

I've now read three Anthony Trollopes this year. La Vendée: An Historical Romance was Trollope's only historical fiction. Written when he was still toiling in obscurity before the publication of The Warden and Barchester Towers, it chronicles the royalist revolt of La Vendée, a region of western France, during the French Revolution. Trollope blends history with generous doses of romance and melodrama among factual and fictitious characters.

I've tried to read this book twice before; this was the first time I was able to get past the first quarter or so. This time around, I was able to push on. I thought the later parts of the book were better than the first part, even though the dialogue remains stilted and artificial. Trollope accomplished more than telling an adventure story; we see the negative effects of the war upon both the nobles and the peasants. Also, the lead characters are presented sympathetically. Of course, the comparison to the "rivers of blood" favored by Robespierre during the Reign of Terror makes the noble Vendeans look especially good.

31NinieB
Ago 14, 2021, 8:57 pm

Time to catch up on the books I've been reading.

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths finds Ruth Galloway in a lonely place. She hasn't seen Harry all summer because he has chosen Michelle. Harry, too, misses Ruth and Kate. Both are distracted by the mysterious death of a local museum curator. I found this one a bit of a let-down after the tense ending of the previous one, The House at Sea's End.

John Rhode's The Claverton Mystery is about the death of Sir John Claverton, old friend of Dr. Priestley. He is survived by a sister to whom he has refused for many years to talk to, a niece who has been nursing him, and a nephew. His death can only be explained by natural causes, yet Dr. Priestley is convinced that one of the younger generation wanted Claverton dead. Just as mysterious is the dead man's will. I hadn't read a Rhode in a while and I enjoyed its Golden Age tenor, even though it's a bit stodgy like all the Rhode mysteries.

In Appleby and Honeybath, Michael Innes brings together the two characters at a country house party (where else?). Appleby's wife Judith is a distant relation of the host, Terence Grinton, whom Honeybath has been commissioned to paint. Imagine Honeybath's surprise when he walks into the deserted library to discover a dead man, and his still greater surprise when the dead man disappears from the apparently locked room. It's all good fun, in the way of the later Innes mysteries, although I did prefer the previous Honeybath, Lord Mullion's Secret.

After his ocean-going adventures in the previous series entry, Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is back in the outback in Bushranger of the Skies. The title's bushranger (bandit) drops several bombs from his plane on page 4, and the tone is set for a not very mysterious, but highly suspenseful, story. Many of the characters are entirely or partially indigenous Australians, a fact which informs the bad guy's motives, so I decided to use this novel for the marginalized groups Bingo square.

32NinieB
Ago 15, 2021, 4:41 pm

The Magic Flute by P. Craig Russell is a graphic novel adaptation of Mozart's famous opera. While I don't normally read graphic novels, I enjoyed getting a better understanding of the story than I had been able to previously, and the illustrations are very attractive. In brief, Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Princess Pamina from Sarastro. With the support of the birdcatcher Papageno, Tamino sets off on his quest carrying a magic flute given to him by the Queen. After finding Pamina, Tamino and Papageno discover that the situation is considerably more complex than the Queen led them to believe.

GenreCAT
Bingo (magic)

33NinieB
Ago 26, 2021, 7:38 pm

In Growing Up, Angela Thirkell continues telling the story of Lydia and Noel Merton. We first met Lydia when she was about 14; now she is 24ish, having been married for two years to Noel. He has been in England since Dunkirk, and they have been living in rooms all over as he has been moved around. Now back in Barsetshire, they have become paying guests of Sir Harry and Lady Waring. The Warings, in late middle age, are living in the servants' quarters of their house, Beliers Priory, while the house is occupied by a military convalescent hospital. In addition to Noel and Lydia, repeat characters include the supremely dull but worthy Octavia Crawley, her fiancé Tommy Needham, Mrs. Morland, Tony Morland (who has thankfully outgrown his youthful annoying character), and Philip Winter, formerly a teacher at Southbridge School. Philip is immediately attracted to the Warings' niece Leslie when he meets her on the railway platform in Winter Overcotes.

Anyways, just like this review, nothing much really happens in Growing Up, but it is nonetheless one of the more delightful in the series.

34NinieB
Editado: Ago 26, 2021, 7:50 pm

One of the older inhabitants of my TBR list, The Restless Hands by Bruno Fischer is a slightly noirish mystery of the late 1940s set in small-town upstate New York. The story is about Rebecca, whose younger sister was murdered by strangling several months previously, Tony, whom she's in love with, Mark, and George. Tony is a small-time hoodlum who abruptly walked out on Rebecca the same night her sister was murdered and now returns to Hessian Valley without explanation. Mark and George are both in love with Rebecca. Everyone is alarmed when someone attacks Rebecca near where the previous murder took place. Rebecca's father hires Ben Helm, a private investigator, to find out who has the restless hands.

I liked this novel, and I'm looking forward to reading the other Fischer I own, The Spider Lily.

35NinieB
Ago 26, 2021, 8:02 pm

Darkwater is a Gothic romantic suspense story by Dorothy Eden (originally published as The Bird in the Chimney). Fanny, a young woman nearing 21, has been raised by her cousin and his wife at their mansion, Darkwater, in Devon. She's always been treated as the poor relation, though, and her frustration with her life has her dreaming of running away to be a nurse in the Crimean War. But when she goes to London to meet her two recently orphaned young cousins, she changes her mind because the children speak to her heart. Then there's the fascinating young man, Adam, that is shepherding the children on their way to Darkwater. Not long after the children arrive at Darkwater, though, their nurse is murdered.

I gave this one a low rating, for me at least, because the story seemed quite slow in places, and the explanation of the mystery at the end was pretty muddled. Thinking back, though, I am feeling more positive about it.

36NinieB
Ago 26, 2021, 8:09 pm

Possibly the reason I feel more positive about Darkwater is that the next book I read was truly dreadful. Dead Fingers by Elisabeth Sutton had a nifty name, a clever little illustration of some dead-looking fingers holding a jewel, and a promising start for an unknown 1918 mystery. Miss Carter, a middle-aged spinster who has traveled the world, finds herself on hard times in New York City. When John Campbell is willing to pay her a munificent salary to be a companion to his daughter in his luxurious but creepy mansion outside the city, she's not about to say no. She has serious qualms, though, when she meets Campbell's crazy wife Gregorita, who wanders around with a parrot. The parrot's favorite phrase is "Dead fingers!" But Miss Carter immediately is fond of daughter Carmen, and she takes the job. Things get seriously weird when the sinister Jim Kidd moves himself into the mansion, and then more so when Miss Carter realizes that a mysterious Chinese man has been substituted for the Japanese butler. No one else, though, seems to notice any difference.

So, this novel went quickly downhill to become a yellow peril story. Not at all recommended.

37pamelad
Editado: Ago 26, 2021, 9:54 pm

>36 NinieB: I see that you're the only person with Dead Fingers, and from your review it didn't deserve its rescue from obscurity. Though sometimes it's useful to look back and see how people used to think. I was very surprised to read, in a book by Lisa See, about the miscegenation laws in the US.

ETA It was On Gold Mountain. Really interesting.

38NinieB
Editado: Ago 26, 2021, 9:56 pm

>37 pamelad: I was hoping, for the first few chapters, that it would be in the vein of Mary Roberts Rinehart, and I suppose Miss Carter did owe something to MRR's spinsters. But unlike those spinsters, Miss Carter had terrible lapses in memory (at one point she completely forgets about the Japanese butler's lookalike). She's also convinced, despite having lived in Yokohama, that all Japanese are crafty and worse. No, sadly, not one that deserves rescue from obscurity.

I've never read any Lisa See, but my mother-in-law has raved about her. I will look into On Gold Mountain.

39NinieB
Editado: Ago 27, 2021, 8:10 pm

I squeezed in a small Virago for this month: The Newspaper of Claremont Street by Elizabeth Jolley is about Weekly, an elderly housecleaner, who has for many years lived a frugal, lonely life in a room in a nameless suburb in Australia. (A reference to the wheatbelt suggests a suburb of Perth, where Jolley herself lived.) Called Weekly or Newspaper because of her great knowledge of local gossip and news, she dreams of purchasing land with her small savings.

Jolley's portrait of lonely but self-sufficient old age is one I won't forget soon. Recommended.

40NinieB
Ago 28, 2021, 3:36 pm

Miss Buncle, Married is the sequel to Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson. Now married to her publisher, Arthur Abbott, Barbara is determined to move out of the London suburbs to find the perfect house in a village close enough to London for Arthur to commute. She succeeds when she finds Archway House in Wandlebury. Of course, being Barbara, she has to get tangled up in the quirky limitations that Lady Chevis Cobbe has put on the inheritance of her estate, become fascinated with the children who live next door, and interfere with the best of intentions in a romance.

Everybody says that this one is not as good as the first book. I suppose if I had read them back-to-back I might have felt this way, but it's been long enough that I didn't feel any disappointment in Miss Buncle, Married--I thought it was great fun, and I was happy to use it for the Bingo square "made you laugh".

41kac522
Editado: Ago 28, 2021, 10:54 pm

>40 NinieB: They're all fun, but I think I enjoyed the first book and the last (The Four Graces) the best.

42NinieB
Ago 29, 2021, 7:29 pm

>41 kac522: Second recommendation I've received for The Four Graces. I just requested The Two Mrs Abbotts from interlibrary loan, and already have my own copy of The Four Graces.

43NinieB
Ago 31, 2021, 6:08 pm

On an impulse (and yes, that's another Bingo square) I read Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock, a Canadian humor classic. We learn about the foibles and strengths of the people of fictional Mariposa, Ontario, a town of about 5,000 (although the population gets boasted up to about 9,000). I enjoyed this book, with the best part being the narrator's voice, "an insider, a villager, both observer and participant, defiantly supportive of the town's accomplishments and his neighbours' worth" (quoting the afterword by Jack Hodgins).

44NinieB
Ago 31, 2021, 6:43 pm

Which brings me to the end of August. This was another good reading month for me--by my count I read 19 books. Three books I particularly enjoyed were Growing Up, Miss Buncle, Married, and The Restless Hands.

45NinieB
Sep 6, 2021, 12:52 pm

The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition includes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, the original John Tenniel illustrations and extensive annotations by Martin Gardner. I found this edition illuminating as I've always been a bit baffled by Alice, to the point that I had never even tried to read Through the Looking-Glass.

I was surprised by how much I recognized--for a basic example, I didn't know that "curiouser and curiouser" is a quotation from Alice. I can see this working for those that already love the books and want to know more about them, as well as those like me who need to have nonsense humor explained to them. And of course, if annotated editions are your thing, then you will enjoy this. If you've never read Alice, however, you may want to try first without the annotations as they can distract from the story line.

46NinieB
Sep 6, 2021, 1:33 pm

It's amazing how it will take only one book to push me into not reading. I was interested in A Death in the Life because it's both a Virago Modern Classic and on H. R. F. Keating's 100 Best Crime Fiction list. Although I didn't particularly want to return to it after a couple chapters, I also didn't turn to anything else, which led to the longest reading gap I've had since spring.

47pamelad
Sep 6, 2021, 5:15 pm

>46 NinieB: Fortune tellers don't belong in crime fiction! I hope your next book is one you can't put down.

48NinieB
Sep 6, 2021, 5:36 pm

>47 pamelad: Ha! she just didn't have my number. Maybe some other time . . .

Thanks! I hope so too!

49NinieB
Editado: Sep 7, 2021, 8:27 am

I read Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher in one sitting. (Thanks Pam for sending good reading vibes my way!) This epistolary novel is told entirely in letters of recommendation written by English professor Jason Fitger over the course of one academic year at a second tier American research university. Very funny with a serious subtext. The book won the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2015.

50NinieB
Sep 12, 2021, 10:25 am

Looking ahead to October, I see that #Victober, a Booktube challenge, has been announced. The basic idea is to read English Victorian novels during the month of October. It has four specific challenges this year:

1. Read a Victorian sensation novel
2. Read a Victorian book set in the countryside AND/OR the city
3. Read a Victorian book with a female main character
4. Read a popular Victorian book you haven’t yet read (how you define popular is up to you – could be popular now, popular on Booktube, popular in the Victorian period itself)

I'd like to use this to get through some of the unread Victoriana on my shelves:

1. Charles Reade's Hard Cash should be a sensation novel--it's from the right time period (1863) and Reade was known as a sensation novelist, when he wasn't writing historical fiction. Alternatively, I have several unread Wilkie Collins novels, including Hide and Seek (1854), A Rogue's Life (1857), and The Dead Secret (1873).
2. Maybe Deerbrook (1839) by Harriet Martineau or The Small House at Allington (1864) by Anthony Trollope, both set in the country. I suspect that any book I read can be justified to fit in this category!
3. Lots of female main characters: Helena Bertram (1859); Miss Miles (1890); The Real Charlotte (1894); Esther Waters (1894); and The Beth Book (1897).
4. If I judge popularity by the number of LT copies, I have several contenders: The History of Henry Esmond (1852); Villette (1853); The Water-Babies (1863); Flatland (1884); The Diary of a Nobody (1892).

51kac522
Sep 12, 2021, 12:41 pm

Some interesting choices! Liz led group reads a few years ago of both Deerbrook (https://www.librarything.com/topic/245181) and The Small House at Allington (https://www.librarything.com/topic/157636).

All of your female character book choices are new to me; The Real Charlotte and The Beth Book look particularly interesting.
Good luck! I've got my list set, but I have a terrible tendency to change at the last minute, so I'm going to wait a bit before putting it on my LT thread, although I did put it on Goodreads. But I don't keep track of my reading on Goodreads, just use it to join these booktube groups.

52kac522
Sep 12, 2021, 1:20 pm

>50 NinieB: One choice I definitely will be reading is a Trollope's The Claverings.

53NinieB
Sep 12, 2021, 2:18 pm

>52 kac522: Thanks! Liz's group reads are so helpful. She really knows her stuff.

I've been wanting to read The Beth Book for a while but it is very thick, which has been giving me pause.

I too am very likely to change my mind several times before October. While I have some contenders right now, I could also read some entirely different books!

>52 kac522: Undecided on Trollope. Whilel I'd like to read the Barchester series again, I'm also mindful of all those other books he wrote! I might have read The Claverings many years ago, in a Dover edition, but I don't remember anything about it.

54pamelad
Sep 12, 2021, 4:52 pm

>50 NinieB: Putting in a plug for the wildly funny The Diary of a Nobody, a comic classic.

55NinieB
Sep 12, 2021, 5:37 pm

>54 pamelad: And we know I like funny . . . . Thanks for the plug!

56kac522
Sep 12, 2021, 5:44 pm

>54 pamelad: Agreed!

>53 NinieB: Yes, I have the Dover edition of The Claverings, too, but I was just reading in another source that there is a page missing from all the editions prior to 1986! Apparently when the novel was transferred from Cornhill Magazine to the first book printing, a page was omitted, and omitted from every edition after that. The 1986 Oxford World's Classic edition (edited by David Skilton) restores this page (I think in the appendix), and I was able to hunt down this edition at a suburban library. I'm not sure The Claverings has been re-printed since then, except possibly by the Trollope Society. I'm getting very Liz-like in my obsession with the "correct" version....she's been a bad influence (in a good way), or a good influence (in a bad way)--take your pick! 🤣

57NinieB
Sep 12, 2021, 8:04 pm

>56 kac522: Well, I'm glad someone noticed a page was missing(!). And you're not the only one who's become pickier about editions :)

58NinieB
Sep 18, 2021, 12:53 pm

Ten Days' Wonder by Ellery Queen is number 20 in the series. Ellery's old friend Howard Van Horn shows up on Ellery's doorstep after being in an amnesic state for several days. These amnesic problems are not new for Howard, and he convinces Ellery to visit him at his New England home to help him figure out why he's having these problems. Howard lives with his adoptive father, Diedrich, his very young stepmother, Sally, and his uncle Wolfert in a town Ellery knows well, Wrightsville (which seems to have moved from New York State to New England). Ellery discovers soon after arrival that Howard hasn't been exactly forthcoming about the things that are bothering him.

The murder takes place late, there's lots of Freudian psychology, lots of obvious detective work is not done, and I figured out the murderer without the help of Ellery's elaborate theory. Not my favorite Queen.

59NinieB
Sep 19, 2021, 8:07 pm

A nice comfort Trollope reread--The Warden is the first appearance of Barsetshire and a lovely character portrait of the titular character, Septimus Harding, warden of Hiram's Hospital in Barchester. The passage of hundreds of years since the trust was set up has resulted in the twelve elderly residents of the Hospital receiving an adequate, but small, income. In comparison the warden's income is large. A young reformer draws not only national attention to the disparity, but also the attention of the warden himself.

I've read The Warden at least twice before--possibly three times. Each time I've enjoyed it greatly. The Warden is such a wonderful character. The legal situation is perfectly ambiguous. There are no villains among the main characters--both the young reformer and the warden seem to be at least well-intentioned. And for Trollope it is short--my copy is 172 pages.

60kac522
Sep 20, 2021, 12:46 am

>59 NinieB: I've been meaning to re-read that for ages. It was my first intro to Trollope. My mother raved about Trollope, but I was certain that if she loved him, I'd hate him. So when she died, I gave away ALL of her Trollope (and she had a lot!), except for the The Warden, because it was the shortest book of the lot, with the intention of one day (grudgingly) giving it a go.

Which I finally did--7 years after she died--and I was hooked! To think of all the conversations I could have had with her about the books! (We did talk Austen and Dickens, however). And I spent YEARS acquiring copies of all of his novels--I think I'm only missing 2--and kicking myself every time I think of all those copies I donated to Goodwill.

I am now over half-way reading all of the novels--after completing the Barsetshire and Palliser novels, I went back to the beginning, which has sort of coincided with Liz's Trollope group reads. I'm a few novels ahead of her, but then that gives me the opportunity to re-read as we go along.

61pamelad
Editado: Sep 20, 2021, 1:29 am

>59 NinieB: A comforting Trollope read appeals, so I've started Ralph the Heir.
>60 kac522: When I looked at the list of Trollope's novels on LT, there seemed to be hundreds, but Google says 47, so quite doable. Happy reading!

62NinieB
Editado: Sep 20, 2021, 7:16 am

>60 kac522: At least you had the Dickens and Austin conversations, and in the end her recommendation was on the mark! I read The Eustace Diamonds first and I've never stopped reading and rereading Trollope. I too am slowly making my way through chronologically after reading the series and some standalones. But at the moment I'm going to reread the Barsetshire series, mainly so I'm fully prepared to reread The Last Chronicle of Barset.

>61 pamelad: One I have not read yet--I'll look forward to the review!

63NinieB
Sep 22, 2021, 9:15 pm

Inspector Ghote Draws a Line finds the Inspector in the deep mofussil (out in the sticks, in American English). He's been assigned to protect Sir Asif Ibrahim from whoever is sending him death threats. Sir Asif was a judge during the British Raj who sentenced a group of conspirators against the Raj to death. He's now 82 and obstinately opposed to having anyone try to protect his life. Can the Inspector find a way to investigate the crime without the victim's cooperation?

64NinieB
Sep 22, 2021, 9:22 pm

It was time for another crime fiction book from H. R. F. Keating's 100 best list. A Pinch of Snuff by Reginald Hill is one in a long series about Superintendent Dalziel and Inspector Pascoe in Yorkshire. They are opposites, which made this a good choice for the September MysteryKIT. In this installment, Pascoe is alerted that a porn film showing at the Calliope Kinema Club might have a snuff sequence in it. Pascoe's investigation seems to indicate that there's no snuff, but coincidentally one of the owners of the Club is found dead and the premises trashed.

This mystery has a complicated plot and I'll confess I had some trouble following Dalziel's explanation. But I really liked Hill's writing, and I'd be interested in reading more in the series.

65NinieB
Sep 28, 2021, 9:34 pm

The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D. E. Stevenson is set during World War II and is the third Buncle book. Barbara Abbott is now the mother of two children. Jerry Abbott is desperately missing her husband Sam, who's serving in Egypt. She distracts herself with trying to play matchmaker to her brother Archie. She's also taken a paying guest, Jane Watt.

As another LT reviewer pointed out, structurally this story is a bit odd, with quite a bit happening in the first third that doesn't go anywhere. Nonetheless Stevenson has not lost her light touch, which I greatly enjoy.

66NinieB
Sep 28, 2021, 9:41 pm

The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell is also set during wartime and, like The Two Mrs. Abbotts, gives a strong sense of what it was like to live in village England in the early 1940s. The family focus this time is on the Beltons, whose financial situation has led to their leasing their big house to the Hosiers' Girls' Foundation School, whose London buildings have been destroyed in the Blitz. The Beltons move to a house they own in the village of Harefield. There the parents are frequently visited by their children Freddy, Charles, and Elsa, all in their 20s and actively serving their country.

While this one had much of what I like in Thirkell (humor, a lively sense of place, updates on characters from previous books in the series, etc.), it also was too long (350 pages, too much I think for Thirkell's endless tea parties and dinners) as well as having Mixo-Lydian humor (any of which is too much) and other mockery of those not in the class of families like the Beltons.

67NinieB
Oct 1, 2021, 5:47 pm

Salem Chapel (1863) by Mrs. Oliphant is the first full-length novel in the Chronicles of Carlingford. The main character is Arthur Vincent, a Dissenting minister in the small English town of Carlingford. While Arthur is happy to have his first professional job after school, he's not finding his church's members (the "connection") particularly congenial to his tastes. He's also uncomfortable with the marketing emphasis placed on preaching--his deacons judge his success on how many pews are rented. On the other hand, he has met some interesting women in Carlingford, both the beautiful Lady Western, and the mysterious Mrs. Hilyard. Everything goes haywire for Arthur, though, when his mother arrives in Carlingford with alarming news about his sister.

While I enjoyed Salem Chapel, it was a mashup of a sensation novel and a small town novel, which Oliphant does not blend very successfully.

68NinieB
Oct 1, 2021, 5:56 pm

At the same time I was reading Salem Chapel, I was in the throes of another Oliphant novel, Squire Arden. Published seven years after Salem Chapel, Squire Arden shows a much more sophisticated use of features of the sensation novel (secrets from the past) blended with the psychological fiction that the mature Oliphant did so well.

Edgar Arden, a young man of about 30, has inherited the fine old estate of Arden, where he and his sister live. But it's been evident to Edgar all his life that as far as his father was concerned, Edgar was not a true Arden. It's true that everyone says Edgar takes after his mother rather than the Arden family--can that explain the deceased father's apparent dislike for Edgar? Meanwhile, Clare Arden, Edgar's sister--who has all the family traits--is struggling with her feelings for her cousin, Arthur Arden, and her intense Arden pride. Arthur himself, a poor man, is consumed with envy that Edgar has inherited Arden.

Squire Arden is followed by For Love and Life, which I plan to read in the next few months.

69NinieB
Oct 1, 2021, 6:01 pm

I squeezed in one other book in September, The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. It came highly recommended by >54 pamelad: and >56 kac522:. It is, indeed, quite funny--I particularly love the summary chapter headings, which include notations such as, "I tell a good joke".

70VivienneR
Oct 2, 2021, 1:01 am

>59 NinieB: The Warden is my favourite Anthony Trollope book. Like you, I have read it three times and enjoy it every time. A long time ago there was an excellent production on TV with Donald Pleasance playing the warden that I'd like to see again.

71NinieB
Editado: Oct 2, 2021, 4:55 pm

>70 VivienneR: Ooh, I'd like to see that TV show too!

ETA: It's available on YouTube, or I can check it out on DVD from my local library.

72pamelad
Oct 2, 2021, 6:59 pm

>69 NinieB: I'm glad you didn't hate it!

73NinieB
Oct 2, 2021, 7:38 pm

>72 pamelad: Not at all!

74NinieB
Oct 2, 2021, 7:44 pm

The Four Graces is the story of one wartime summer in the lives of the Grace family, four sisters and their father, a vicar. The author, D. E. Stevenson, says in the preface that "here, then, are to be found only the lighter side and the small inconveniences of Total War", but the truth is that just this lighter side means life upended in country villages like Chevis Green. Although this isn't really a Buncle book, as Miss Buncle appears exactly once, at a distance, it would be unfortunate to read it before reading the three Buncle books, some of whose secrets are revealed right at the beginning. I greatly enjoyed my all too short time with the Graces and like another LT reviewer, I regret there isn't another story about them.

75VivienneR
Oct 3, 2021, 4:10 pm

>71 NinieB: Glad you found it! I'll have a look on YouTube. If memory serves, the Warden played a cello on the series. I'll never hear a Bach Suite for solo cello without thinking of him.

76NinieB
Oct 3, 2021, 6:26 pm

>75 VivienneR: That's very evocative! He plays a cello in the book as well, mentally when things get stressful.

77kac522
Oct 3, 2021, 10:41 pm

>75 VivienneR: If you're talking about this 1982 BBC-TV series--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barchester_Chronicles
it covers the first 2 books: The Warden and Barchester Towers. Donald Pleasence was great as the Warden, and so was Alan Rickman (early in his career) as Obadiah Slope.

The Pallisers BBC-TV series (1974)--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pallisers
covers the entire 6 Palliser books. If memory serves, it's 26 episodes on multiple DVDs. It was fantastic, especially if you get into the series. Susan Hampshire was brilliant as Lady Glencora, and I really enjoyed Philip Latham's nuanced portrayal of Plantagenet Palliser.

78kac522
Oct 3, 2021, 10:44 pm

>74 NinieB: This book and Miss Buncle's Book were my two favorites in the series. I also loved the Mrs Tim books.
I'm trying to read D.E. Stevenson in publication order (outside of those 2 series), but I'm finding her work is uneven--some books are wonderful and some leave a lot to be desired.

79NinieB
Oct 3, 2021, 11:14 pm

>77 kac522: I have seen The Pallisers and loved it. It's definitely time for The Barsetshire Chronicles.

>78 kac522: I haven't read the Mrs. Tim series, but I have several standalones that I plan to read in the next year or so. They are nice quick reads!

80VivienneR
Oct 4, 2021, 1:23 am

>77 kac522: Yes, that's the series. Look at the cast, all stars now, some were then too. Obadiah Slope was a terrific character and Rickman was perfectly cast in the part.

For some reason that I don't remember, I stopped watching The Pallisers. I moved around a lot around that time.

81kac522
Oct 4, 2021, 3:06 am

>79 NinieB: Besides the Mrs Tim books, so far my favorites have been Celia's House (loosely based modern re-telling of Mansfield Park) and Listening Valley, which carries on the story of a couple of characters from Celia's House.

82NinieB
Editado: Oct 4, 2021, 8:36 am

>80 VivienneR: I'm rereading Barchester Towers right now (couldn't stop after The Warden) and I would love to see Obadiah Slope brought to life . . . must get on watching this!

>81 kac522: Good to know! I have Spring Magic, Smouldering Fire, and The Young Clementina, as well as a very late one, Gerald and Elizabeth, all ready to read.

83kac522
Oct 4, 2021, 11:59 am

>82 NinieB: I read Smouldering Fire and The Young Clementina last year and both are good. I have Spring Magic and Crooked Adam right now from the library, but not sure when I'll get to them. As long as no one else puts them on Hold, I can renew them up to 15 times.

84NinieB
Editado: Oct 4, 2021, 2:35 pm

>83 kac522: Did you read The Empty World aka A World in Spell? That one sounded curious.

85kac522
Oct 4, 2021, 4:16 pm

>84 NinieB: I have not been able to find a copy of it. Or Peter West. In addition to the Mrs Tim and Buncle books, I have read her books through 1940, plus Celia's House and Listening Valley (1943 & 1944). So I think 18 in total, with 2 library books out now.

I will say that I hated The English Air (1940); it is essentially pro-British (and anti-German) propaganda. Understandable for its time, I guess, but very uncomfortable to read.

86NinieB
Oct 5, 2021, 7:26 am

>85 kac522: I looked at your thread from last year to see your reviews of the 1930s. I'm happy to stick with the ones I own for now! :)

87NinieB
Oct 5, 2021, 7:00 pm

So I'm now embarked on re-reading Trollope's Barsetshire Novels. I just finished the second, Barchester Towers. This was the second Trollope novel I ever read and it sealed Trollope as my main Victorian man.

If you're unfamiliar with Barchester Towers, it's the sequel to >59 NinieB: The Warden. In this installment, set five years after The Warden, we find out what happens in Barchester when a new low-church bishop is appointed following the death of the prior bishop. The new bishop's wife, Mrs. Proudie, is determined to be the real power behind the bishop's throne, but so is the bishop's chaplain, Mr. Slope. As far as Archdeacon Grantly is concerned, the appointment of a low-church bishop is a declaration of war. The story is narrated with strong dose of comic satire.

I'm now looking forward to the next in series, Doctor Thorne.

88kac522
Oct 5, 2021, 8:41 pm

>87 NinieB: Dr Thorne--one of my top Trollopes! It's the only Barsetshire novel I've re-read. One day I'll re-read them all....after I finish the first reading of all 47 novels--on #28 right now (loving The Claverings!)

89NinieB
Oct 5, 2021, 9:05 pm

>88 kac522: According to my plan I'm supposed to be reading new Trollopes too! This is how seductive the series is--I can't read one without reading all six.

90kac522
Oct 6, 2021, 1:40 am

>89 NinieB: Yep, so true. I'm so tempted to just re-read The Warden, but I know I'd give in to the rest, and I want to stick to my plan. Plus, I truly am enjoying most of the new ones. Enjoy!

91NinieB
Oct 8, 2021, 7:26 pm

In the 1940s, the psychological suspense mystery came into vogue. The Horizontal Man exemplifies this trend, so not surprisingly it's included in a Library of America collection of '40s mysteries by women writers.

On the plus side, it is well written and engaging with mostly good characterization. The setup is the murder of a professor at a women's college in Connecticut. He was young and attractive, with a promising career as a poet.

Sadly, the twist the author used has become commonplace, and the presentation of abnormal psychology in suspense fiction has become much more sophisticated. Probably the best way to approach this book today would be to expect to figure out the solution part way through and stick around for the picture of New England academia circa 1946.

92NinieB
Oct 11, 2021, 6:37 pm

I completed Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau late last night. It's a lengthy early Victorian novel (1839) in which two sisters, Hester and Margaret Ibbotson, from Birmingham make an extended visit to their cousin, Mr. Grey, in the small village of Deerbrook. The visit turns out to be life-changing for both sisters. While the village is physically charming, malicious Mrs. Rowland creates problems for the sisters and those close to them.

This book was a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, the characters are well-drawn and exhibit considerable development over the course of the novel. The plot itself is fascinating, with an unforgettable, realistic portrait of small-town English life, warts and all, through a very rough time. I recommend the book for these reasons.

On the other hand, I found the novel slow to pick up steam. I also found Martineau's discussions both in dialogue and otherwise of social, religious, and philosophical dilemmas and issues somewhat dull. I ended up skimming some of these sections.

93kac522
Editado: Oct 11, 2021, 11:31 pm

>92 NinieB: Yes, I was mixed on this one, too, if I remember correctly. I found Martineau an interesting bridge between Austen and the later Victorians, like Eliot and Gaskell. I thought the best parts of the book were the various portrayals of small-town life and people, but it dragged for me, too. I must admit Liz's group read helped me push through on this one. I haven't read another Martineau.

94NinieB
Oct 12, 2021, 1:19 am

>93 kac522: I read that thread after I finished the book (thanks for the link!), and I can see where the group energy would help!

95NinieB
Oct 20, 2021, 3:16 pm

Another Victorian novel . . . The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Charles Dickens' last, unfinished work. I was disappointed--this was frankly a real slog to read. I'm a fan of Dickens and I've liked many of his novels. Bleak House is just wonderful; Little Dorrit is pretty great; David Copperfield made me cry; and so on. Something in the writing style of this last, late work didn't work for me though. I was really looking forward to puzzling over the what happened and whodunnit that has made Edwin Drood so famous, because we don't know what Dickens planned for the solution or even for the second half of the book. And on a side note--I didn't realize that Dickens was only 58 when he died!

96kac522
Editado: Oct 21, 2021, 1:38 am

>95 NinieB: Yes, I finished Edwin Drood this week, too, and I also had a hard time getting engaged with the story. It was dark and atmospheric, but there wasn't a single character I liked. Usually half-way through a Dickens' novel there is at least *one* person that is either enjoyably comic or portrayed sympathetically, but not here. I felt that I didn't know Rosa Bud well enough to like or dislike her, and Datchery, who peaked my interest, comes in too late for us to understand who he is. Well, maybe Crisparkle and Grewgious were OK, but they felt distant to me.

I did appreciate all the notes in my Penguin edition; many of the phrases were cryptic (at best) and the notes helped me understand lots of double meanings that I would have missed otherwise. After about 2/3 through, I did feel that I wanted to solve the mystery, but that will never be. This will not be a favorite Dickens for me, and I don't think the full novel would have changed my mind. My own theory is that the old woman who follows Jasper would have played an important part--my guess is she witnessed part or all of the crime. Other than that, I'm pretty clueless.

97NinieB
Oct 21, 2021, 4:01 pm

>96 kac522: I have been following up by reading/skimming the annotations in The Companion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which is available for check-out on archive.org. These are increasing my appreciation of the book as it is, since as you say there are many cryptic phrases. Particularly interesting is the split of opinion on whether Edwin Drood has been murdered or will reappear, alive, later in the book. The Companion's author, Wendy Jacobson, is strongly in the reappearance camp. I admit, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has found this book difficult--I thought maybe it was just me!

98kac522
Editado: Oct 21, 2021, 11:13 pm

>97 NinieB: At first I was in the reappearance camp, but after reading extra material in my edition, several contemporaries, including Dickens's son Charles, indicated that from his discussion with his father, Drood *is* murdered. The murder was to be less important than the focus on the psychological unraveling of the murderer, similar to the way Bradley Headstone devolves into madness in Our Mutual Friend. This was a keen interest of Dickens: the criminal mind.

99NinieB
Oct 31, 2021, 1:40 pm

The Dark Beasts and Eight Other Stories from The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long is a collection of dark fantasy/horror stories in the Lovecraftian vein, read for October's GenreCAT. I waited a bit to write this summary in the hope that I would have a better sense of what I thought of the stories. Well, in the two weeks that have passed I've discovered that--they were not particularly memorable.

100NinieB
Editado: Oct 31, 2021, 1:55 pm

Hanged for a Sheep by Frances and Richard Lockridge is an average 1940s mystery, containing all the typical elements of a Mr. and Mrs. North story. As Jerry is traveling on business, Pam goes to spend a few days with her Aunt Flora in Flora's big old Manhattan house off 5th Avenue. The cats accompany Pam, so we have some good cat antics to keep things lighter. After Pam arrives, in her first conversation with Flora she learns that someone tried to poison Flora with arsenic just a couple of weeks before. While Flora has recovered without lingering problems, something is definitely going on in the house, as a body shows up in the breakfast room the next morning. There is no shortage of suspects, with several of Flora's children and grandchildren living in the house with her. While I enjoyed the story as a whole, it took me several days to read as I could never drum up much enthusiasm for learning specifically whodunnit.

101NinieB
Oct 31, 2021, 1:55 pm

After a couple of forgettable books, I was happy to read a much more solidly interesting story, W Is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. In this entry, PI Kinsey Millhone is surprised when she is asked to identify the corpse of a man she has never met. Why? Her office name and address were on the dead man's body, which was found in his sleeping bag on the beach in fictional Santa Teresa, California. Intrigued, Kinsey begins to investigate among the man's acquaintances in Santa Teresa's shelter population.

I read this book for October's MysteryKIT.

102NinieB
Oct 31, 2021, 4:46 pm

One more chalked up to October:

Cooper's Creek is Alan Moorehead's book about the ill-starred Burke-Wills expedition north from Melbourne, Australia, to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back. Through a combination of bad choices by various expedition members and plain bad luck, Burke and Wills, as well as several other members of the expedition, did not survive. The events are well described towards the end: "Their story perfectly expresses the early settlers' deeply-felt idea that life was not so much a struggle against other men as against the wilderness," and as a result the tragedy "survives . . . strongly as a legend in Australia."

I read this book both for October's HistoryCAT and for the Bingo square "nature or environment."

103NinieB
Nov 1, 2021, 9:20 pm

My first November book is the mystery Strange Gods by Annamaria Alfieri. It's set in 1911. Vera McIntosh is the daughter of Scottish missionaries living in the British East Africa Protectorate, near Nairobi. She has fallen in love with Justin Tolliver, the younger son of an earl and member of the colonial police force. Vera's uncle Josiah, a doctor at the mission hospital, is found murdered on the mission grounds. While his superior tries to pin the murder on the local medicine man who resented Josiah's influence over local natives, Tolliver is convinced that the medicine man was not responsible.

The best part of this story is the African setting, the worst the mystery. The romance between Tolliver and Vera falls somewhere in between.

I read this book for November's MysteryKIT, historical mystery.

104NinieB
Editado: Nov 14, 2021, 11:29 am

Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini is a somewhat humourous nonfiction look at the online knitting world in 2009. For a book that's only 12 years old it feels peculiarly dated, because like everything else it's a world that has changed quickly in the intervening years. I enjoyed it, aside from the dated thing, but I'm a knitter, so your mileage may vary.

105NinieB
Nov 14, 2021, 11:34 am

Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen is one of the New York detective's most famous cases, and one I had always enjoyed greatly on previous readings. Written in 1949, it's an early serial-killer novel, set in New York City. Ellery is still feeling his failure in Ten Days' Wonder, but having the opportunity to track a serial killer helps bring him out of it--until he feels like a failure again. I didn't enjoy it so much this time, as it seemed like it was really feeling its age (serial-killer mysteries have come a long ways). Also, reading it in order after Ten Days' Wonder showed how Queen started to focus heavily on Freudian psychology, not my favorite mystery trope.

106NinieB
Editado: Nov 14, 2021, 12:01 pm

Cold Harbour by Francis Brett Young was originally published in 1924. A young couple tell friends the story of how they spent an afternoon visiting a country house in Worcestershire. The house is apparently haunted. The novel has a tone of psychological horror, and is perhaps best described by another LT reviewer, Heaven-Ali, as one of the "old fashioned gothic type stories of the past". I found myself skimming over some discussion among the friends about what actually happened, but all in all it was a pretty decent novel of the 1920s.

107rabbitprincess
Nov 14, 2021, 1:43 pm

>104 NinieB: I would totally read this, both for the knitting aspect and for the dated online tech aspect :D

108NinieB
Nov 14, 2021, 2:16 pm

>107 rabbitprincess: I'll be interested to see your take on it!

109NinieB
Nov 16, 2021, 10:22 pm

Imagine a city brought to its knees by a disease that kills, quickly and brutally, something like 20% of its population. Then, the following year, when the epidemic is subsiding and life is returning to normal, a terrible fire breaks out and destroys over 80% of the city's buildings. This one-two punch actually struck the City of London in 1665 and 1666.

James Leasor's The Plague and the Fire is a nonfiction narrative of these two dreadful events. Leasor does a great job of telling the story of the bubonic plague as it would have been experienced by everyday Londoners in 1665. He's less successful at telling about the fire. Also, this is popular history, so the only sourcing is a short bibliography at the end.

110mathgirl40
Nov 16, 2021, 10:30 pm

>104 NinieB: This book looks interesting. I'm pretty sure I have some Alice Starmore pattern books in my library somewhere, but I don't think I'd ever ended up making anything from those books! The patterns are lovely to look at, though.

111NinieB
Nov 16, 2021, 10:37 pm

>110 mathgirl40: I have some of her books, too, but I don't expect to ever make any of the patterns either. Great fun to dream over, though!

112kac522
Editado: Nov 17, 2021, 1:31 am

>109 NinieB: I have Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year on the shelf. I'm wondering if I should read a shorter non-fiction book before I plunge into Defoe. How long is Leasor's book?

113NinieB
Nov 17, 2021, 7:49 am

It's 189 pages in an old small-type Avon paperback, with the first two-thirds about the plague. He quotes from Defoe a number of times.

114kac522
Nov 17, 2021, 5:36 pm

>113 NinieB: Interesting...I'll see if I can find a copy.

115NinieB
Nov 18, 2021, 7:35 pm

For GenreCAT this month I read Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, about Dr. Ethan Urquhart, a reproductive specialist of the planet Athos, where women are not allowed. All children (sons only of course) are conceived from ovarian cultures and gestated in uterine replicators. But now the cultures are aging and need replacing. When Ethan needs to journey away to get high-quality cultures, he stumbles into adventure at Kline Station, and gets to know Commander Elli Quinn (last seen in The Warrior's Apprentice).

116NinieB
Nov 23, 2021, 8:08 am

I woke up to an inch of snow this morning. Winter is here!

117Helenliz
Nov 23, 2021, 12:56 pm

>:-o

118VivienneR
Nov 23, 2021, 1:01 pm

>116 NinieB: Beautiful! I love snow - fortunately, because I live in the mountains with *lots* of snow.

119NinieB
Editado: Nov 25, 2021, 12:07 pm

>117 Helenliz: That's a rough approximation of how I looked when I saw it!
>118 VivienneR: I'm enchanted every year when it snows! Since I grew up in a place with no snow, it never fails to astonish me.

120NinieB
Nov 25, 2021, 12:08 pm

I keep letting myself get behind in my reviews. Time for a little catch up.

121NinieB
Nov 25, 2021, 12:18 pm

Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage are the third and fourth in Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire books, and rereads for me of course. When I read these previously I had not read the Palliser series, so I didn't appreciate just how much the groundwork for that series is laid in these books, what with the Duke of Omnium's Gatherum Castle being in West Barsetshire and especially the significant political content of Framley Parsonage. Lady Dumbello's Barsetshire roots are also found in Framley Parsonage. Indeed, Framley really firms up the "series" status of the first four books, since Doctor Thorne does not feel like it is part of the same series until it's tied in by Framley.

These were a delight to reread, and I say that even though I skimmed some of the political stuff just a wee bit. Trollope does a magnificent job of creating living characters with individual personalities.

122NinieB
Nov 25, 2021, 12:29 pm

The Stolen Blue by Judith Van Gieson is a mystery about rare books. Claire Reynier is a librarian at an Albuquerque library devoted to books of the Southwest. When her old mentor decides to leave his collection to the library, she happily goes to his remote ranch to retrieve the collection. While there, though, she is shocked when her mentor commits suicide and leaves her as the executor of the estate. Then, upon her return to Albuquerque, some of the rarest of the books are stolen from her car. Claire's troubles only increase when the family challenges her mentor's will. Claire ends up doing a good deal of detecting online, a novelty when this mystery was published in 2000.

This is a pretty good mystery, even with detailed descriptions of how Claire detects online (written, no doubt, for readers who had never used a computer). The ending, though, just doesn't come as a surprise.

123NinieB
Nov 25, 2021, 12:38 pm

The Lime Pit by Jonathan Valin is the first in a series about a private investigator, Harry Stoner, based in Cincinnati. It's for those who like hard-boiled mysteries with violence; those who like dark Scandinavian noir would probably like it. Harry agrees to spend half an hour asking questions about Cindy Ann Evans, a homeless teenager. The investigation snowballs when Harry uncovers a sex trafficking business.

Valin writes well, and while I enjoy a good PI novel, I was hoping for something not quite so dark.

124NinieB
Nov 25, 2021, 12:51 pm

I wasn't really planning to read Boy: A Sketch by Marie Corelli; it just kind of happened. "Boy", real name Robert, is the son of Captain and Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir; he's a drunk and she's a sloven (to use the book's terminology). Their acquaintance Miss Letitia Leslie is charmed by 4-year-old Boy and tries to convince them to let her adopt him. They refuse. Mrs. D'Arcy-Muir is painted as a stupid woman who cares little for her son but intentionally harms his future prospects rather than give him up. In subsequent years, while the D'Arcy-Muirs continue to make bad decisions, Miss Letty and her longtime friend Major Dick Desmond regret Boy's upbringing and apply their preferred methods to Major Desmond's niece, Violet. While Violet becomes a successful and talented nurse, Boy stumbles in life. The book's viewpoint is hammered home repeatedly.

I hadn't read Corelli previously. Her writing is not awful, but not subtle, either. Based on this experience, I don't feel a need to seek out more of her books.

125Helenliz
Nov 29, 2021, 2:30 pm

>124 NinieB: avoiding that then!

>121 NinieB: I have grand plans to read Trollope - but as I'm only at book 2 of Poldark, he's going to have to wait. Probably quite a while.

126kac522
Nov 29, 2021, 2:43 pm

>121 NinieB: I'm still plodding away through Trollope's stand-alone books (which are delightful), but the Barchester books are so, so tempting to re-read!

127NinieB
Nov 29, 2021, 5:22 pm

>125 Helenliz: I liked the first four or five Poldarks, then one of them turned me off and I never returned.

>126 kac522: Sorry to be putting temptation in your way! I'll be reading Rachel Ray next month.

128NinieB
Nov 30, 2021, 6:16 pm

The Death Angel by Clyde B. Clason features Professor Theocritus Lucius Westborough, amateur detective in the 1930s US. In this story, Westborough is visiting "Rumpelstiltzkin", the country home of Arnold Bancroft in Wisconsin. Bancroft mysteriously disappears at the beginning; a gunshot and blood suggest Bancroft's fate was to be pushed over a cliff into a fast-moving river, after being shot. This is only the first of the mysterious and deadly happenings at Rumpelstiltzkin.

This mystery is for those (like me) who enjoy complex, leisurely Golden Age mysteries. While it's the second in the series, I think it could be read as I did without reading the first.

129NinieB
Nov 30, 2021, 6:27 pm

In Go West, Inspector Ghote by H. R. F. Keating, our Bombay detective actually goes east to Los Angeles, where he's been commissioned to retrieve the daughter of wealthy magnate Ranjee Shahani. Daughter Nirmala, studying in California for a year, has joined an ashram and given all her money to the swami. Not long after Ghote arrives in Los Angeles and finds Nirmala, though, he also finds the swami dead with his throat cut--no sign of a weapon or murderer.

I enjoyed this puzzle mystery with some light humor arising out of Ghote's bafflement with 1980s Los Angeles.

130NinieB
Dic 6, 2021, 5:46 pm

The Snake Pit is the second volume in Sigrid Undset's tetralogy The Master of Hestviken. It's set in medieval Norway and tells the story of Olav Audunsson's marriage to Ingunn, a marriage with more than its share of sorrow. This tetralogy has to be read in order; I'm really looking forward to the next volume, In the Wilderness, because Undset, a Nobel Prize winner, tells such a deeply meaningful story with beautifully realized, three-dimensional characters.

This wraps up my second BingoDOG card, as Norway is a place I dream about visiting. Some day.

131DeltaQueen50
Dic 6, 2021, 9:53 pm

Congrats on completing a second Bingo Card!

132MissWatson
Dic 7, 2021, 2:43 am

Congrats on finishing your second card!

133NinieB
Dic 7, 2021, 9:20 am

>131 DeltaQueen50: >132 MissWatson: Thank you! I love how the Bingo cards give me more ideas for book selection!

134NinieB
Dic 7, 2021, 6:22 pm

The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay, originally published in 1936, is about a murder that takes place on Christmas day in an English country house. The whole family is visiting, as are a couple of family friends, one of whom has dressed up as Santa Klaus (there doesn't seem to be any significance in the K as opposed to a C). Much of the detection, accomplished by the county's chief constable, is of the who-was-where-when variety.

It's pretty typical for me to give books of this sort 3.5 or 4 stars. I went with 3.5 stars here. It's an archetypal country-house murder, which I liked. On the other hand, clues are gradually revealed because the police overlooked so much in their investigation, definitely a weakness.

135christina_reads
Dic 8, 2021, 9:49 am

>134 NinieB: Ooh, I just bought this one! Glad to see you found it enjoyable. I've liked the author's other books, Murder Underground and Death on the Cherwell.

136NinieB
Dic 8, 2021, 5:02 pm

>135 christina_reads: Yes, definitely enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading her Death on the Cherwell soon.

137rabbitprincess
Dic 8, 2021, 5:45 pm

>135 christina_reads: >136 NinieB: Death on the Cherwell was my favourite of those three books, going by my ratings :)

138pamelad
Dic 8, 2021, 7:22 pm

>130 NinieB: Congratulations on finishing the second Bingo card. I hope you get to Norway soonish.

Where did this post go the first time? Is it floating in the ether ready to appear by surprise, perhaps in multiples?

139NinieB
Dic 10, 2021, 5:45 pm

>137 rabbitprincess: All the more reason to read it!

>138 pamelad: Thank you! I hope I get to Norway soonish too.

140NinieB
Editado: Dic 10, 2021, 5:56 pm

For Love and Life was Mrs. Oliphant's follow-up to Squire Arden, which I read earlier this year. This long-forgotten duology is once again available to readers on Project Gutenberg, and I highly recommend the pair if you already like Victorian novels. Squire Arden is definitely the better of the two novels, but they make a very satisfying pair. In For Love and Life, we continue to follow Edgar several years after the momentous events of Squire Arden. A new element in For Love and Life is the Tottenham family; she is the daughter of an earl and he owns a department store, so they provide an interesting commentary on marriage outside of one's social class.

141kac522
Dic 10, 2021, 6:14 pm

>140 NinieB: Ooh, thanks for mentioning these. I will need to find them. I was able to get A Beleaguered City and Other Stories from my library, and it includes "The Library Window." Haven't dipped in yet, but plan to soon.

142NinieB
Dic 10, 2021, 6:21 pm

>141 kac522: I hope you find them in a form you want! One thing to know, the second one was also published as For Love or Life.

143pamelad
Dic 10, 2021, 7:03 pm

>140 NinieB: I've added Squire Arden to the wish list. While I was looking for a Kobo copy I found Madam and added it too, because the blurb says it is the book Mrs Oliphant thought was her best.

144NinieB
Dic 10, 2021, 8:54 pm

>143 pamelad: Interesting! I will have to get that one too.

145NinieB
Editado: Dic 15, 2021, 11:01 pm

Close Quarters by Michael Gilbert is a classic Golden Age detective story set in a cathedral close in the fictitious English city of Melchester. After close residents receive a series of anonymous letters accusing the elderly verger, Appledown, of misdeeds, the Dean has his nephew, Sergeant Pollock of Scotland Yard, do some informal investigation. Scotland Yard's role becomes official when Appledown is found murdered next to the cathedral. Chief Inspector Hazlerigg leads the investigation.

This book was Gilbert's first. While it's quite good, I found it almost too elaborate--the lengthy list of characters at the beginning gives some warning of this!

146pamelad
Dic 15, 2021, 10:51 pm

I've liked everything I've read recently by Michael Gilbert, so just went looking for a Gilbert source and found that there are lots of his books available for free on KoboPlus. Since I can't remember the titles of all the Gilbert books I read before LT, it's an opportunity to try them and see which ones seem familiar.

147NinieB
Dic 15, 2021, 11:04 pm

>146 pamelad: I'll look forward to your reviews!

148NinieB
Dic 21, 2021, 8:30 pm

I've been unenthusiastic about reading lately, so I decided to throw in some favorite Agatha Christie to shake things up. Murder on the Orient Express came to mind because I saw the 1970s movie recently. It was as good as ever. Of course I'm familiar with all the clues. . . .

I came across a line that made me laugh:

"This," said Dr. Constantine, "is more wildly improbable than any roman policier I have ever read."

149NinieB
Dic 23, 2021, 4:16 pm

Still trying to reinvogorate my reading. Rites by Sophie Coulombeau is a novel about four 14-year-olds--two couples--in greater Manchester who go about losing their virginity. Things get very complicated and several lives, not just those of the teenagers, are changed. Themes of betrayal and friendship are the underlying focus of the story.

This novel is very readable--I read it in two days. Potential readers should be aware, however, that questions of consent arise.

150NinieB
Dic 23, 2021, 5:57 pm

Rachel Ray was another delightful Anthony Trollope novel. While it's definitely novel-length, and not short either, it has fewer plot threads and is shorter than a number of Trollope's other books. I read this as part of a fascinating group discussion over in the 75ers.

151rabbitprincess
Dic 23, 2021, 9:41 pm

>148 NinieB: I'm feeling those reading blahs too! It doesn't help that work got wickedly busy right before Christmas :-/

152NinieB
Dic 23, 2021, 10:00 pm

>151 rabbitprincess: Oh, that's a drag that your work is so busy. I'm very fortunate to have the next week off work--no thinking about it until 2022!

153NinieB
Dic 24, 2021, 8:01 pm

The Annotated Christmas Carol is an impressive compilation of the original novella, extensive helpful annotations, and a 100+ page introduction. I found it most helpful to read the material in this order. The annotations are lengthy and frequent enough to break the flow of reading. There's an appendix as well, which contains another lengthy introduction about Dickens's elocution career, in which he performed versions of the original story to large audiences all over the British isles and the United States. The performing version published in the US in 1867 is also included. (I skipped reading this.) Highly recommended for anyone interested in Dickens.

154NinieB
Dic 26, 2021, 12:14 pm

The Turquoise Shop by Frances Crane takes place in the New Mexico village of Santa Maria, which bears a great resemblance to Taos. The narrator, Jean Holly, sells Indian and Spanish jewelry and the like in her store on the plaza. In the story, two deaths affect the artists' colony. Fortunately, handsome private detective Pat Abbott is vacationing in Santa Maria; while insisting he's not in town for a job, he nonetheless takes an interest in the local murder scene.

My favorite aspect of the mystery (first in a lengthy series) is the local color and setting. The mystery was pretty good too, although the number of characters and potential motives overcomplicates the plot. The stereotyping of Indians is unfortunate.

155NinieB
Dic 30, 2021, 6:05 pm

I had been meaning to read The Annotated Big Sleep and Mamie's 2022 Big-Sleep-themed thread reminded me. I had a vague memory of the movie and even less memory of the book. Basic plot involves Philip Marlowe being hired by wealthy General Sternwood to shut down a blackmail attempt involving his younger daughter, Carmen. Marlowe also gets tangled up in the disappearance of Rusty Regan, husband of the General's other daughter Vivian.

The annotations are first-class. I could quibble about some things I would have liked to see covered, but I won't. Suffice to say that they (the annotations) are useful for understanding the '30s slang and references, and for gaining a better literary understanding of the novel. The editors avoid spoilers in the annotations. Unless you hate annotations, it's well worth reading the annotated version if you're interested in the book.

156NinieB
Ene 1, 2022, 3:39 pm

The Golden Box by Frances Crane is the second in the Pat and Jean Abbott series. It takes place just a few weeks after the events in The Turquoise Shop. Jean Holly has gone home to Elm Hill, Illinois (based on Lawrenceville, Crane's hometown) to visit family. The same night she arrives, the town old-lady bully, Mrs. Lake, dies. Pat Abbott shows up just in time for the next death, and he sticks around to solve it.

I liked this one as well. Crane again shows her talent for creating memorable setting and characters, without overwhelming the mystery plot.

157NinieB
Ene 1, 2022, 3:44 pm

And that's a wrap for my 2021 reading. All told I read 153 books, including a couple of long short stories and some chunksters. The majority were by women authors and my guess is a majority were mysteries, but I read plenty outside of the mystery realm as well.

See you all over in my 2022 thread!