The book I read this week is a little unusual; it is a Western. I’ve read them, of course. I’ve read many Louis L’Amour. I met Terrance McCauley at the Rensselaer Library. He writes both mysteries and westerns.
I really enjoyed this tale of Sheriff Mackey. Forced to shoot a group of saloon rats and planting them in “Mackey’s garden”, the Sheriff raises the ire of both the local banker who is planning a deal with a railroad baron and also a psychopathic killer. He is determined to punish Mackey for killing his buddies. The bullets fly. Definitely escapist literature.
On the advice of a friend, I read The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson.
This is quite different from the novels I usually read.
Hanson takes four societies – Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople and Tenochtitlan – to discuss war and obliteration. His central thesis is that, through naïveté and foolish confidence, some societies are utterly annihilated. Thebes, for example, was destroyed by Alexander the Great, Carthage by the Romans, Constantinople by the Ottomans and Tenochtitlan by Cortez.
Both Thebes and Constantinople believed (foolishly according to Hanson) their walls and fortifications would protect them. Carthage did not realize Rome still held a grudge for a previous war. And in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs were more interested in capturing their enemies for sacrifice to their Gods than killing them. The Spanish, trained soldiers all, mowed the Aztecs down with their superior armor and weaponry despite their much smaller numbers. The winners then felt they had a right to totally destroy the society, apparently because the loser didn’t just give up.
Although he doesn’t pull this out of his central argument, my takeaway is that each of these societies were destroyed by an invader/conquorer. Although the Aztecs were vastly outmatched by the steel armor and the guns of the Spanish, in the other three cases the military technology was roughly even.
Then my question would be: Should the early American colonists have given up in the face of Great Britain’s might? True, there were factors that gave the early Americans an edge (the distance across the Atlantic, British military tactics that remained unchanged against the guerrilla warfare practiced by the Americans, and the entry of the French on the American side) but we were vastly outmatched. We withdrew from Vietnam, despite our superior military power. And should Ukraine fold and allow Putin and Russia to sweep over them?
This week I read Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce.
This was an Edgar Award winner in the Children’s category. It reminded me strongly of the Enola Holmes books and Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series. Here’s an interesting fact. Although all the protagonists are young girls (opinionated and very bright, it goes without saying), the Bradley mysteries are considered adult while the Enola Holmes and Myrtle Hardcastles are classed as children’s lit.
Myrtle is a bright twelve year-old with an obsession for criminal justice. In the interest of science, she Observes (she always capitalizes this word) her neighbors. When her next door neighbor, an eccentric older lady who breeds lilies, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtles sees her chance to investigate. Armed with her mother’s microscope, and accompanied by her governess, Miss Judson, Myrtle sets about proving that Miss Woodhouse was murdered. No one believes her, not even her father, but Myrtle perseveres, putting not only herself in danger but also her father.
I really enjoyed the mystery and Myrtle is a great character. However, a young reader would have to be a very good reader to enjoy Premeditated Myrtle.
Recommended with reservations.
Just a reminder: I will be at Rensselaer Public Library Saturday, 1 to 3. The event is free. I will be giving away a copy of Death in Salem to all who buy a book.
I read two books this past week. Neither were traditional mysteries. The first one was Her Past Can’t Wait by Jacqueline Boulden.
At a business function, Emily is groped by an important client. Instead of accepting it, she turns and slaps humans causes a big scene. Although her supervisor saves her job, she is suspended for two weeks. During that time, she goes for therapy and discovers a long ago trauma. Her investigation of that trauma leads to a serial predator and almost costs Emily her life.
The second book was Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney.
Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart which has made her alternately scorned and spoiled. When her estranged family arrives on a tiny island in Cornwall for Nana’s eightieth birthday, they all arrive with secrets. Because of the tide, the house will be cut off for eight hours. As a storm rages outside and on the stroke of midnight, Nana is found dead. One by one, each of the family dies. Who can be killing the family?
Creepy and captivating. Perfect for a Halloween Read. I admit, however, that I was not thrilled with the final twist.
WordPress has ‘upgraded’ which means it is more difficult to use and without some of the previous amenities. Bear with me, I am still figuring it out.
The third of Amy Myer’s cozies, Marsh and Daughter’s murder mysteries, Murder in Hell’s Corner, finds Georgia and her father investigating the murder of Patrick Fairfax, a revered WWII pilot.
As Georgia and Peter investigate, especially looking into a close knit group of pilots who knew Fairfax, they realize that he was not as universally admired as his family believed.
Was the murderer one of his many women? Or one of the other pilots? Or his business partner? The solution, and the twist at the end, is surprising.
What I found captivating, though, was the descriptions of WWII. The relentless bombing by the Germans, the loss of friends and comrades that occurred almost hourly, the sheer scale of a war pounding at this small country. Like Foyle’s War, it is a reminder that England was almost destroyed and was metaphorically hanging by its fingernails.
On a Bookbub recommendation, I bought the set of Marsh and Daughter mysteries by Amy Marsh.
So far, I have read the first two and begun the third.
Georgia and her father, a retired police detective, research cold cases. Anything that piques their curiosity – a little bit of supernatural here – and then write books solving the mystery.
In the first one, The Wickenham Murders, a young gardener Davy Todd is accused of murdering Ada Proctor, the Doctor’s daughter. But so many parts of the story don’t make sense. The villagers don’t want the Marshs poking around but there is that strange music indicating someone doesn’t believe Davy was guilty. Then Georgia discovers Davy’s old sweetheart, still alive, and convinced of his innocence.
In the second book, Murder in Friday Street, a rock musician, Fanny Star, is murdered when she returns to the village to give a concert. Although her partner is accused of the crime, serves time and is murdered almost immediately upon his release, Georgia and her father don’t believe he was the guilty party. Suspects abound but the investigation into ‘the gang’, the friends of Fanny when they were kids, leads to the solution.
These are darker than Agatha Christie but, like her mysteries, show that murders happen even in cozy villages.
Since I am watching the Summer Olympics, my usual reading has taken a hit. I am about half way through Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead.
The previous book in the series ended with a cliffhanger: Finlay sees a proposed hit on her husband with a bounty of $100,000. She is pretty sure Theresa is not behind it since she is in jail for her connections with the Russian mob.
Since Finlay is nothing if not impulsive, she not only looks at the hit, she responds to it. The coded response comes to both Finlay and ‘EasyClean”, saying whoever murders Steve first will get paid – and she wants it done by Christmas.
Finlay and her nanny/friend begin investigating and are in Steven’s trailer at his business when someone firebombs it. The discovery of a body in a storage unit rented under Theresa’s name further complicates the case.
Like the first in the series, it is funny. But also full of contrivances. Finlay does a lot of foolish things, impulsively and without thought. I would give the series a B to a B+. It’s funny and the story keeps moving but I find Finlay’s thoughtlessness and impulsivity annoying.
I wanted to read something very different and somewhat exotic. I picked up Auntie Lee’s Deadly Delights: a Singaporean mystery.
This was truly exotic, from the strange and unusual food to the Singapore setting. But, as I have said so often, people are always the same. (I frequently feel that the murder victims are so unpleasant it is no surprise when they’re murdered and, in fact, I wonder why it took so long.) If anyone deserved murdering, it is Mabel Sung and her son Leonard. There is no shortage of suspects but suspicion immediately falls on the caterer, Auntie Lee, who prepared traditional foods for the buffet, some of which require soaking to remove cyanide. (Really!)
Auntie Lee, who knows she is innocent, embarks on her own investigation. Fortunately, Inspector Salim has eaten at Auntie Lee’s cafe numerous times and he does not believe Auntie Lee is definitely guilty. The game is afoot!
This is a cozy police procedural with a lot of humor. The unusual setting is certainly a plus but the personality of Auntie Lee is the real charm here. Really fun.Recommended.
Murder in the Bistro; a Maggie Newberry mystery, by Susan Kieran-Lewis, is number 9 in the series. I bought it after seeing an ad on Bookbub.
There is a lot going on in this mystery. It really gives the reader of the stresses of a young mother with young children, married, and in the French countryside.
Maggie’s husband Laurent is busy with the grape harvest and is having trouble with some of the gypsy pickers. At the same time, her friend Grace, and Grace’s two children, are staying at the house. The youngest, Zouzou is fine but Taylor is a difficult thirteen. Grace is trying to get her business off the ground – but the photographer is more interested in shooting photos of Maggie’s youngest, Mila.
Then another American in the village, a chef trying to open a bistro, is murdered and Laurent’s partner is accused. The victim is so poisonous the reader is unsurprised when she is murdered, but there are other unpleasant characters in the village. The reactions of the locals to Maggie sure don’t encourage moving to a village in France.
But – I loved the book. I plan to go back to number one and read them in order. Recommended.
Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King is number fifteen in her long running and popular Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery series. In this outing, Mary is asked by a school friend to find her aunt Vivian. Vivian has spent many years in Bedlam. When Mary and her friend pay a visit to Bedlam and visit Vivian, she seems happy and sane. She says, to Mary’s surprise, that she’s ‘safe’ in Bedlam.
But on a visit to her family, she disappears.
Mary, after visiting the family home and meeting the Lord of the Manor, that there is something else going on. Mary writes to her husband, Sherlock. He joins her in her search for Vivian.
To glean what information she can. Mary disguises herself and allows herself to be confined to Bedlam.
Another captivating and complicated mystery. Highly Recommended.
