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Week of February 27

I read three very different books this week. I began with The Shadow of the Empire. No, not a Star Wars book but a new series by Qiu Xialong, the first of a series using the Golden Age’s Judge Dee as the protagonist.

Because of a political conflict, over succession, Judge Dee has been posted out of the city. On his travels he receives two mysterious message, one pinned to a post in his room with a dagger, and a message from an opponent asking him to investigate a murder, A famous poetess has been accused.

Naturally, the mystery, and the subsequent deaths, are more complicated than they first appear.

For me, the primary charm is the light it shines on this very exotic culture, so different from out own.

To another culture, although one a little closer to home, I turned to Stargazer by Anne Hillerman. She had taken over for her father, the world famous Tony Hillerman. Although she uses Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, she had expanded the role of a female character, Bernie Manuelito.

Bernie’s best friend from high school has confessed to the murder of her estranged husband. But, by all accounts, the split was amicable. Did something happen the night Maya and her husband met so Maya could obtain her husbands signature on the divorce papers?

As usual, there are plenty of details about the Navaho culture. A captivating read.

Finally, I read The Corpse at the Crystal Palace by Carola Dunn. This is the 23rd Daisy Dalrymple and the series hasn’t lost any steam.

Daisy, now married to Alec Fletcher, takes her daughter Belinda and some adopted cousins to the Crystal Palace. The children notice some strange behavior by their nanny and follow her – fortunately. They come upon her floating unconscious in a pond but manage to save her.

Once the children have told their story, Daisy embarks on her own investigation and discovers a dead body in the women’s loo (that’s the rest room.) The victim looks familiar but at first Daisy can’t place her. Once that small mystery is cleared up, Daisy begins her investigation into the murder. Charming as always.

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Week of February 21 – I was slowed down this week since I was preparing for both the Suffolk Mystery Festival and the Murderous March Mystery Conference, both Saturday, March 5.

But I managed to get through two books, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

First was Judgment at Santa Monica, by E.J. Copperman.

Our hero is a lawyer, and when we meet her she is defending, and losing, a case of a suburban mon accused of prostitution. To her surprise, famous actor and previous client, Patrick McNabb turns up and wants her to take another murder case. Cynthia Sutton, another actor, is involved in a messy divorce that she blames on her mothering-law. Our reluctant defender has barely gotten started when Cynthia is accused of her mother-in-law’s accused of her mother-in-law’s murder. And lawyer Sandy is shot at and a co-worker is seriously injured. What is going on?

A good mystery and a wonderful wise-cracking protagonist.

The second book, Stargazer, is by Anne Hillerman. She is continuing her father’s mystery series, with the addition of female character Bernie Manuelito.

It looks like an ordinary day: serving a bench warrant, taking care of a herd of escaped cattle and so on. Then the husband of Bernie’s old college friend Maya requests her held. What has happened to Maya? Once closer than sisters, Bernie had lost touch with her old friend when Maya began drinking heavily. Now Maya has been accused of the murder of her estranged husband but something doesn’t seem right. With Chee, Bernie’s love interest, and Joe Leaphorn to help, another murder is solved.

As usual, one of the most captivating parts of these books is the study of the Navaho culture.

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The following books, plus a Summoning of Spirits by Hieber, will be discussed by a panel at Murderous March, March 5, 4:45. The topic: Villains: the Characters we love to hate.

The Ninja Daughter, by Tori Eldrige, introduces Lily Wong, a self-styled female ninja. She has made it her mission to protect women and children, primarily by working with a battered woman’s shelter.

We first meet her as she is being beaten by a thug working for the Ukranian mob. Lily is trying to save the wife and child of one of the mobsters – although Katerina takes her son Ilya home despite Lily’s best efforts.

Several deaths that seem to have no relation to one another, a young woman involved with a married man, and a Korean mob all combine together in an action packed and exciting mystery. The characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Lily. I will definitely read more of these.

It is 1975 and Carmen Valdez, working as a secretary at Triumph Comics as a secretary, is desperate to break into the world of comics. A semi-friend from the office, Harvey, suggests they write a comic together. But then he is found dead, and all the scripts are turned in without her name. Carmen is desperate to discover the murderer, and what happened to her name as co-writer on a comic that becomes a runaway hit?

Another exciting and action packed mystery with an added bonus: the inclusion of the comics in the novel,

Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is busy struggling to maintain her farm to care about the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she’s a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British. Her husband was a Patriot, everyone knows. But General Washington knows differently. Rebecca’s husband was a British spy. If she can find out what her husband was doing, Washington will protect her farm.

To figure out what Parcell was doing, Becca must speak to an escaped British prisoner of war: Daniel Alloway. He was the last person to see her husband alive. They join forces – now Becca must fight her growing attraction to this drifter.

A wonderful historical novel about the early days of the Revolutionary War. I hope there is a sequel to this one.

March 5 Two conferences

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I will be involved in two conferences on Saturday March 5, These conferences are open to writers and readers both.

Suffolk Mystery Festival

I will be on a panel from 2 – 3 : Mining the Past for Great Historical Fiction

This conference is FREE but you do have to Register.

I will also be attending Murderous March (remotely). The cost for the Saturday panels, pitching, and more. My panel: Villains, the characters we love to hate, will run from 4:45 – 5:00. Taking the Master Classes with Hank Phillipi Ryan or Caterina McPherson costs 40.00 each.

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Week of January 31

Fast Track by John Dedakis – Lark Chadwick, the so called Miracle Baby who survived an automobile crash that killed both parents, returns to her home town to investigate.

After the suicide of her aunt, the person who raised her after her parent’s death, Lark is devastated by grief. To cope, she begins to investigate her past and the accident that killed her parents. Once she is in town, she very quickly runs afoul of someone who wants the truth buried.

Although the author is a man, he writes from a woman’s perspective very very well. I will definitely read more in this series.

Dead Man’s Leap by Tina DeBellegarde – I was given a chance to read this mystery pre-publication. This is the sequel to Winter Witness by Agatha Award nominee de Bellegarde.

A ferocious rain storm and the resulting flooding drives the residents of Batavia on the Hudson to the local community center. A death, and the discovery of old bones, give the Sheriff two murders to investigate. It also causes the people of Batavia to rethink their lives, previous choices, changes in relationships and more. A character driven mystery.

Summoning of Souls by Leanna Renee Hieber – the third in the Spectral City Trilogy.

Albert Prenze, a villain who craves the total destruction of all ghosts, has been presumed dead. But Eve, her friends, the ghosts who serve as part of her posse, and NYPD Detective Horowitz discover Prenze is alive and has developed powerful psychic powers. He is endangering Eve and her family, the ghosts who assist her, and the Sanctuary, a safe place for ghosts who have not crossed over.

I had read the first of the trilogy and still was a bit at sea so reading these in order is necessary. For fans of the supernatural.

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Week of Jan 24.

This week was my spiritualism/seances week, totally unplanned.

The first book I read was Spirits and Smoke by Mary Miley.

Miley is continuing her second series that takes place in 1930’s Chicago. In this one, a seemingly random event, the death of a banker from a ‘smoke’ cocktail turns into bank fraud, the Chicago gangs, and of course murder and spiritualism. The characters are first rate, the setting is fabulous, and the mystery was fun. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

I also read City of Shadows by Victoria Thompson.

The spiritualist in this book is not so benign as in the Miley Mystery. Madame Ophelia has a con going to bilk widows out of the funds their husband have left them. But not to worry. Elizabeth Bates, her brother Jake, the Old Man and other current and former con artists are on the case.

Great fun.

Currently Reading – Week of January 17

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I started the week by reading Garden of Sins by Laura Joh Rowland. I have been a fan since she wrote the Chamberlain Sano series which takes place in seventeenth century Japan.

Garden of Sins is the newest in her Sarah Bain series and takes place in the Victorian era. In this mystery, Sarah and her new husband investigate the death of a female Pinkerton detective. It all has something to do with actors/circus performers who have re-activated a shabby theater.

Besides the central mystery, which involves the talents of Mick and his girlfriend, Sarah is dealing with the trial of her father, a media storm of its own, and problems in her new marriage.

As always, the plotting and the characters are first rate.

The second book I read was Jane Cleland’s Jane Austen’s Lost Letters, part of the Josie Prescott (antique dealer) series.

I had real problems with this mystery. The central mystery, the murder of another dealer who had discovered a method for identifying a forger was fascinating. In fact, all of the antique related information was riveting.

But . . . A woman named Veronica Sutton gives Josie a case that includes the letters. This woman has some connection to Josie’s father (who died twenty years previously.) Although Sutton makes it clear she does not want to engage with Josie, she will not let it go to the point where it felt uncomfortably like stalking.

The mystery about Veronica Sutton is resolved, with a shattering revelation for Josie. I found the backstory a tad unbelievable – would a father really keep such a secret from the daughter he claimed to love so much?

Finally, I read Double Whammy by Gretchen Archer. This is the first in a series recommended by a good friend.

Davis Way (yes, that is really her name), is at a very low ebb. Penniless, she has lost her job and is desperate to find another. A dream job in Biloxi, Miss at a casino presents itself. She is astonishingly well paid and is offered a closet full of designer clothing. But what is the job? She is told it is security work but there are very few specifics. At base, she is supposed to discover how various people are stealing from the casino. Ah, but it is not that simple, is it?

Her ex-husband, ‘Eddie the Ass’, is involved somehow and Davis really wants revenge on him.

Fun and frothy. I will definitely read more, although I do hope Davis grows up a little.garden of sin

Medical care in 1802 – Pain management

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To modern eyes, health care 200 years ago was primitive at best, lethal at worse. A recent knee replacement inspired me to consider medical care and pain management. (A friend of mine told me that a knee replacement is essentially an amputation of one’s leg.) However, it is described, it is a painful procedure.

The choices for treating pain were limited. I think we have all heard the story of the wounded man being treated with a glass of whiskey and a stick clamped between the teeth. Alcohol was used to help the patient into insensibility as well as a disinfectant.

Another choice was salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin. Of course, it wasn’t aspirin. yet; the distilling of salicylic acid did not take place until late in the nineteenth center. No, it had to be used in its natural state. The leaves of the willow tree was steeped into a tea which was given to the patient as an analgesic. As a blood thinner and an anti-inflammatory, it is given to surgical patients and heart attack patients alike. It is still one of the most widely used medications in the world.

Finally, there were the opiates. The sap of the opium poppy has been used for millennia to treat pain. Of course, none of the stronger extracts had been distilled from the poppy until 1820 (morphine) and beyond.

One of the early methods of gaining the analgesic effects of the opium was to steep the straw into a tea. (I allude to this in Death in Salem with a character addicted to ‘straw tea’.) But the most common method of ingesting opium was as laudanum, a tincture of opium and alcohol. A reddish brown liquid, it was extremely bitter. By the early eighteen hundreds, laudanum was common and during the eighteen hundreds it became an ingredient in many patent medicines. It was frequently prescribed to women for menstrual cramps and various aches and pains. As might be expected, addiction was prevalent. Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, was an addict. Another fun fact: nurses would spoon feed laudanum to the infants in their care to help them sleep. And if that doesn’t make your hair curl, I don’t know what will.

Laudanum is still available by prescription.

Our world of Tylenol and Ibuprofen seems almost like paradise in comparison.

Currently Reading – Jan 1, 2022

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A knee replacement slowed me down but as I improve, I gradually take up the reins of my life once again.

While I was in the hospital, I read With Our Blessing, by Jo Spain. This is another in her Irish Garda series, with DCI Tom Reynolds.

The body of an elderly woman, crucified upside down and with ‘Satan’s whore’ carved into her chest, is found near Reynold’s police station. A preliminary investigation reveals the victim to be a nun, from a convent about an hour’s drive away. Reynolds and his team drive down to the convent, where they are offered rooms, and they begin questioning the other nuns. They have barely gotten started when the priest who ministers to the convent disappears and is subsequently found dead. What’s going on?

A involved investigation that centers on the Magdalene Laundries, and pulls in on of their own, is further complicated by a winter storm that dumps feet of snow on the village.

A dark police procedural that does not leave one’s mind quickly.

Death at Greenway by Lori Rader Day. During World War II, thousands of children were evacuated to the countryside to spare them from the bombing in London. Bridget Kelly is a nurse in training who entire family has been wiped out in a strike. Accused of injuring a patient, she is offered a chance to accompany ten children to Greenway, the home owned by Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie (who makes a few cameos through out the novel.)

Accompanying Bridey and the children is another woman, who claims to be a nurse and another Bridget Kelly. She is called Gigi. The group also includes a married couple, the Arbuthnots. They are not at Greenway for very long before some petty thefts occur and then, more seriously, a murder victim.

As historical fiction, this is first rate. The characters are interesting and fully fleshed out and the historical setting is gripping. The undertone of fear and loss is harrowing. But this is not really a mystery, certainly not a whodunit.

Finally, after the seriousness of the previous two volumes, I needed a break and read Crimes and Covers by Amanda Flower.

I am a big fan of the magical book shop mysteries and this one did not disappoint. On the eve of Violet’s wedding to David Rainwater, a woman bursts into he book shop and tries to sell her a first edition Walden signed by Thoreau. When Violet refuses to buy the book (with no provenance or other proofs), the woman storms out only to turn up dead a few hours later. The newlyweds delay their honeymoon to investigate..

Suspects abound, not least a woman who, convinced she is Thoreau’s direct heir, has changed her name to Thoreau. Charming, as usual.

According to the website, this series is planned for five books. I hope Flower writes another; there are several hanging threads.