TITLES E- F

Early Autumn
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Dell
1981

Boston Private Investigator Spenser is hired by a divorced woman whose son is kidnaped by her ex-husband. The son is being used as a pawn in the parent’s schemes of revenge and petty jealousy. Spenser retrieves the boy and then decides to keep him away from both parents, who he feels are damaging influences. The father hires some muscle, but Spenser and Hawk quickly dispatch them and all ends well. This is the story that introduced Paul Giacomin, who essentially becomes Spenser’s ward. A pleasant enough story, but not the typical hard-hitting Spenser tale. (See also “Pastime” with Paul Giacomin and his mother.)


Eight Cousins (Or - The Aunt-Hill)
Louisa May Alcott
Drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Orchard House Edition / Little, Brown & Company
1874



This author is famous for her children’s books, such as “Little Women,” much beloved by all ages for generations. In this story, poor Rose Campbell finds herself an orphan at 13 and is sent to stay with her aunts until her Uncle Alec can claim her. She finds this tough-sledding at first, since her aunts seem to smother her with their fussy and overbearing ways. Also, she finds there are seven rambunctious boys, all her cousins, and as an only child, she has no experience with boys, and the very idea of them frightens her. The aunts despair of her pining away, and they ply her with treats and medicines to pluck up her spirits, to no avail. At last Uncle Alec comes, and he is so hearty and bluff and trying so hard to do the right thing, that she can’t help but like him at once, and feel reassured in his care. She even manages to meet her boy cousins with equanimity, and they are all determined to be nice to her, being an orphan and all. Alec finds that under the aunt’s care, the naturally timid Rose has become ever more meek and wan, so he resolves to provide her with more activities and excitements suitable to a young girl, rather than an elderly invalid. This has the desired effect of getting her to perk up and become more lively, which makes Uncle Alec more gratified, although the aunts feel somewhat put out at being bested at their own game by a bachelor. But Uncle Alec also tends to Rose’s mind and spirit, keeping her mindful of proper grammar, polite manners, fiscal responsibility and charitable obligations. This shows particularly when her cousin Mac damages his eyes in an accident, and she alone among everyone stays by him through his long recovery, by reading to him, keeping him company and cheering him up. This good-natured self-sacrifice endears her to the family and makes them appreciate her in a new light. To keep up their spirits, they send the invalid and his caretaker to the mountains with family friends for a few weeks, and a capital time is had by all. Uncle Alec realizes that besides being active, Rose also needs to be accomplished in cooking, cleaning, sewing and other useful skills. Truth to tell, t he book does sometimes disintegrate into a morality play about low-brow juvenile literature, bad habits of young men and impractical fashions for young ladies, as if that hasn’t been a complaint of adults since at least the ancient Greeks. There are also many lectures on the benefits of exercise and understanding human anatomy and health, which scandalizes the aunts when Alec (who is a doctor) shares his knowledge with Rose, since he has no patience with their old wives tales, vague complaints and dire premonitions. This turns into a cautionary tale when Rose catches a chill after being forgotten at an appointment, and it is only the doctor’s great skill that keeps it from turning into a seriously life-threatening illness. Fortunately, she is better in time for Christmas and a fine old-fashioned time is had by all, even her Uncle Jem has returned from the sea, much to the delight of his family. Christmas is dispatched with less fanfare than would be expected in a story like this, but it is fun nonetheless. Then Rose aches to help Phebe, the young maid, an orphan like her, and Alec comes up with a plan to provide Phebe with schooling during her off-hours, so when she is older, she can make her own way in the world. Rose’s last little bouquet is acting as peacemaker between two of the cousins who have had a falling out, and she soon sets things to rights. Afer a year under his care, everyone agrees that Uncle Alec has done wonders with Rose, and she gratifies him even further by requesting to continue to stay with him, rather than one of the other families. This is a very sweet, though not to say cloying story, quietly amusing with a lot of merit and very uplifting. It has an easy and engaging style, and moves effortlessly from one charming anecdote or harmless escapade to another. It occasionally lectures like a stern school teacher, but mostly it nurtures like a doting aunt, and you can’t help but feel enveloped with its warmth and kindliness. Gently entertaining throughout, and as welcome as a pleasant breeze on a beautiful day.


Emily Davis
Miss Read
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Academy Chicago / Houghton Mifflin
1971



This is another in a series of books by this author, who writes charming tales of village life in the English countryside. This story features spinster Emily Davis of Beech Green, who lived a long and satisfying life. She dies at the beginning of the book, and her life is told in flashback, as vignettes are related by people who knew her when they hear the news. A gentle, tender look at country life and the kinds of people who live there, good, bad and indifferent. Very interesting and not overly sentimental.


The English Witch
Loretta Chase
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Avon Books / The Hearst Corporation
1988



Pretty Alexandra Ashmore is traveling through Greece and Albania while her widowed father studies his beloved antiquities. With them is another scholar, Randolph Burnham, who is Alexandra’s erstwhile fiancé, because her father owes money to the Burnhams, and they want to marry into a title. Alexandra quails at the prospect of this marriage, since she not only doesn’t love Randolph, but he is also indifferent to her charms. (Unlike the local Albanians, who fall over at her feet, and in fact, one enterprising youth went so far as to kidnap her.) Alexandra sends a plea for help to her Aunt Clementina, in the hopes that the old battle-axe will be able to produce some miracle on her behalf. What the Countess does is dispatch a distant relation, Basil Trevelyan, to her aid, and he pretends to be Alexandra’s long-lost true love to wrest her from the hot-headed Albanians. Basil is concerned this might work all too well with Sir Ashmore, so he makes Alexandra promise to jilt him once they get back to London, because after years abroad, he’s looking forward to making hay with the English lasses. Upon their return to town, Aunt Clem takes the situation in hand to prevent Alexandra being rushed into marriage to a man she doesn’t love. In fact, she stirs things up even further by introducing William, Lord Arden (a long-time rival of Basil’s, and keen to make a suitable match) and then arranging for all interested parties to gather at the country estate of Hartleigh Hall. It seems that having Basil and Arden fighting over Alexandra’s attentions was the expected entertainment of all the guests, although both Basil and Alexandra dismiss any idea of caring for each other. In fact, Basil makes a point of flirting with the other misses, while Alexandra pretends to find Arden’s company absorbing. This works only too well when he declares his intentions to her, and is then stupefied when her father arrives with Burnham, supposedly still her intended. If Basil and Alexandra were attempting their subterfuges to make each other jealous, they only succeeded in making themselves miserable, and alternately pining for, or running from, the other. Her father is just as glad for her to marry Arden, whose family fortune far surpasses Burnham’s, and although he’s a first-rate catch, Alexandra finds him shallow and self-centered. When Basil leaves because he realizes he cannot trust himself around Alexandra anymore, she reluctantly agrees to Arden’s plan to sneak off and elope, although her heart isn’t really in it. Fortunately, Basil rescues her along the way and sneaks everyone back to Hartleigh Hall (Alexandra in men’s clothing and Arden drugged unconscious) while also making up a plausible story for the curious. Then Basil, working with Aunt Clem’s man of business, discovers the elder Mr. Burnham has been playing fast and loose with the books, and Sir Ashmore doesn’t owe him all that money to start with. There is also a confusing sub-plot of the younger Burnham falling in love with the daughter of this man of business, which I couldn’t begin to follow, but Basil helped them steal away and elope, which is how he happened to run across Alexandra and Arden at an inn when they were also trying to elope, and scotch their plans. Later, he even manages to convince Arden that Alexandra is not the girl for him, which was no easy task and required copious amounts of brandy. Suddenly, Alexandra finds herself entirely extricated from all of her complications, all thanks to Basil, although her father has some trouble thanking him for proving what a fool he had been. Later, when Basil asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage, Ashmore is understandably chagrined, and there follows a scene that should have been a bit more humorous, but falls somewhat flat. They announce their engagement, which seems anti-climactic after everything else that’s happened, and there is even a brief epilogue from their honeymoon. Because the story basically ended with a very lengthy rapprochement between the couple, it seemed to run out of steam, and just peter out before it was over. Their reconciliation was nice enough, although not rhapsodic, and the epilogue indicates that the whole escapade was stage-managed by Aunt Clem just to get them married, which it did. Well-written and interesting throughout, although a bit too over-populated and way over-plotted for a typical romance of this period.


Ethel
Lester David
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Dell Publishing
1971



Ethel Skakel was from a large and wealthy, but unpretentious, family in New York. She married Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for President in 1968. They had nine children, one of whom was born after Robert’s death. This book is a love letter to its subject, and is told in a verbose and fact-filled style. But it is interesting and full of anecdotes by contemporaries.


The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde
Fantasy
Fiction
Rating 3
Penguin Books / Penguin Putnam
2001



Thursday Next works in the Special Operations Network, which keeps tabs on time, reality, fiction, science, and other matters in this fantastical milieu. Her father was in the Chrono Guard, but became more famous as a rogue ex-operative, traveling through space and time for his own purposes. The present is London in 1985, but her father often visits her and brings news and items from other times and places, in his efforts to "set things right" in history, where outcomes are not always the ones that we would recognize today. For instance, the Crimean War has been dragging on for 130 years with no end in sight, and Wales is an independent country. The monolithic Goliath Corporation seems to be in charge of everything, and their Toad News Network presents the news that they approve of. Unlike her father, Thursday is in SO-27, the Literary Detective division of SpecOps, and mostly they investigate plagiarism, fraud or forgeries, but every so often there is a really big caper where a rare first edition is stolen, such as Dickens’ “Martin Chuzzlewit” manuscript. Thursday is re-allocated to SO-5 for their investigation, since she knows what master criminal Acheron Hades looks like. She and Tamworth (also SO-5) stake out Acheron’s brother Styx in the hopes of finding out something about the missing manuscript. When Acheron shows up, the team attacks, but Acheron kills his brother and two of the operatives, and leaves Next for dead, although she recovers from her wounds, and is told later in the hospital that Acheron was killed in a fiery accident with SO-14 operatives, but she doesn’t buy that. A vision from the future advises Next to accept a position with LiteraTec in Swindon, so she does, although her colleagues wonder about her motives. She is contacted by Jack Schitt at Goliath, who feels that she knows more than she is telling about Acheron, while she wonders about his interest in the manuscript. We also hear about her brother’s death in Crimea, and her anti-war feelings, in spite of fighting there herself. Her family is originally from Swindon, so she stops in to see her mother, Aunt Polly, and eccentric Uncle Mycroft, who fabricates the most fanciful, not to say exactly practical, inventions. She discovers her superiors at LiteraTec assume that she’s an actual SO-5 operative assigned to them undercover to avenge the death of Crometty, who was killed presumably over the Chuzzlewit manuscript. She also bumps into her old boyfriend, Landen, who she’s been trying to forget for 10 years and not succeeding. At work, she overhears Jack Schitt and Braxton Hicks discussing Acheron Hades, and wonders if Goliath has too much influence over the SpecOps Commander. Acheron kidnaps Uncle Mycroft and his Prose Portal, which makes it possible for anyone to be inserted into any literary work, and make changes to the content in any way, which Acheron uses to remove a minor character from Martin Chuzzlewit. Mycroft feels compelled to cooperate, since his beloved Polly is stuck in an old Wordsworth poem, and he needs his Prose Portal to retrieve her. Next and her colleague Bowden Cable kill one of Acheron’s henchmen, the same one who killed Crometty, and run afoul of Jack Schitt, who was hoping to follow the henchman back to Acheron, so Goliath could commandeer the Prose Portal for their own purposes. Meanwhile, Next and Landen fight over whether her late brother was made the scapegoat of a botched mission in the Crimea, and she wonders if coming back to Swindon was such a good idea after all. When she finds out that he has decided to marry someone else instead, she’s more upset than she would expect to be. Then they receive a ransom note from Acheron, who threatens to do worse to Martin Chuzzlewit than he already has, if his demands are not met. Apparently it’s a badly kept secret that people and characters have been exchanged between reality and literature for some time, in fact, Next has her own experiences with Rochester from Jane Eyre. When Acheron makes his ransom demands, Jack Schitt directs SpecOps to deliver counterfeit currency instead, on the erroneous assumption that they will be able to apprehend Acheron at the pick-up site before he suspects anything. Needless to say, this works not at all, and in spite of the best efforts of Next and Cable, Acheron escapes to his hide-out in the Welsh Republic, where all that prevents him from doing more damage to the Martin Chuzzlewit manuscript is that Uncle Mycroft has destroyed it to protect the integrity of the remaining copies of the story throughout history. When SpecOps finds out what has happened, they realize that Acheron will turn his attentions to another, even more beloved work of literature, and with hundreds of rare first editions in existence, they doubt that they can protect them all from his supernatural powers. He snatches the Jane Eyre manuscript, and on their way to the crime scene, Next and Cable are sucked into a time rift where they pop in and out of various places and times (including the hospital room vision that sends her to Swindon in the first place, and another future episode in her work, where she leaves a gun that should come in handy later) and they eventually tumble back out in 2016, which would have been 31 years after they started. Actually, that was just a joke by the Chrono Guard, who were miffed at them solving the problem without them, and the pair were really only gone for seven hours. They continued on to Haworth House and examined the crime scene, after the local police, and Goliath, and even the Toad News Network had long since been there. Meanwhile, Acheron had extracted Jane Eyre herself out of the manuscript, and kept her with him at the Penderyn Hotel in Wales for safekeeping. At SpecOps, Next figures out where Acheron is hiding out, but everyone realizes that trying to get at him there would be nearly impossible. With Jane Eyre out of her own book, the story stops right at the spot, since it’s a first-person narrative, and the uproar throughout the English-speaking world is immediate and vociferous. The LiteraTecs are empowered to do whatever it takes to set things right. Next and Cable sneak into Wales and find everyone at the hotel, but Acheron gets the drop on them and holds them at gunpoint. They also find Jack Schitt there, working in cahoots with Acheron on behalf of Goliath’s dastardly plasma rifle, but their attempts to double-cross each other go awry, and Acheron takes the manuscript and hides out in Jane Eyre. Next takes Jane back into her own book, much to the delight of readers everywhere, and arranges with Rochester to protect the story from the evil intruder. While searching for Acheron in the little town nearby, she bumps into a couple of Japanese tourists from the present, so she realizes that other people have their own ways in and out of the book, much to her chagrin. After a few months, the story gets to the point where Jane and Rochester are going to be married, except that the truth comes out about his lunatic wife in the attic, and Jane leaves. This is where Acheron makes his move, sneaking into the house and threatening to destroy the Wordsworth poem with her Aunt Polly, unless Next gives him her escape code word to get out of the novel. When she refuses, they all slug it out on the roof, including Acheron and Next, plus Rochester and his crazed wife Bertha, while small fires throughout the house threaten to turn it into an inferno. Since Bertha doesn’t know enough to be afraid of Acheron, she attacks him unmercifully, and he finally throws her off the roof, but not before she inadvertently gives Next a clue to his weakness. Although he seems impervious to regular lead bullets, Bertha easily injures him with a pair of scissors, made of silver, and this gives Next the idea to shoot him with a silver bullet, which does the trick and kills him once and for all. As the house is collapsing around them, Rochester carries her to safety, but at the cost of severe injuries to himself. In the real world, this is where you realize that people in this book have been reading the wrong Jane Eyre all along, because their version ends with Jane going to India with St. John Rivers, but as a result of this modern intervention in the story, it instead becomes the timeless romance we all know and love, as Jane comes back to Rochester after this whole disaster and if possible, more in love with him than before. Of course, it’s only in this slightly skewed present, with an independent Wales and never-ending Crimean War, plus no Winston Churchill or bananas, that modern readers would have plainly recognized the old Jane Eyre as just another historical anomaly with no basis in fact. Still in the novel, Next recovers from her wounds and arranges for Jane to find out what has happened, knowing that she will return to Rochester at once, which she does. At that point, her pre-arranged code word can be activated so she can be returned to the real world, and her Aunt Polly released from the poem at last. Before Jack Schitt can use the Prose Portal for his own devious purposes, Mycroft seals him inside Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” but since it’s not the original work, he can’t do any real damage to it. While the Bronte purists are outraged by the changes in Jane Eyre, everyone else seems delighted with the new and improved happy ending after all this time, and Next is considered a hero. When she goes to Landen’s wedding, she finds that Rochester has sent some characters from the book to expose the bride as already married, so she and Landen resolve their differences and agree to get married after all. Later, she exposes the plasma rifle as the fraud that it is (she volunteers herself as a target if they want to demonstrate it) and after that, both sides in the Crimea finally agree to terms and peace is declared at last. Personally, I think a better plot device would have been for her time-traveling father to have resolved the historical inaccuracies that made the conflict drag on, unlike what actually happened, so that the conflict wouldn’t have carried into the present and her brother wouldn’t have died in the first place. There’s no question that this is an interesting and entertaining book, with a story that is unique and different. But it must be said that it is not for every taste, and is actually a lot of work to get through. It seems fun, but it’s serious fun, not just dense with text, but over-populated, and stuffed to the gills (and beyond) with puns, inside jokes and literary allusions of every type. Every name means something, every description refers to something else, every location is rife with meaning, until it just gets to be overwhelming. This is a good example of “too much of a good thing,” where it stops being entertaining and just becomes exhausting. The characters are nice enough, but not overly appealing, and after a while, the writing style becomes just too precious to be really engaging. Certainly different and impressive, but more pedantic than charming. Also annoying, the gun planted in the future during the time rift episode never turned up in the story again, so it may be a factor in a future book, but that’s a long time to wait for a pay-off. (There are four books in this series.)


The Fairacre Festival
Miss Read
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Houghton Mifflin
1968



This is one in a series of sweet and gentle books by this author, who writes charming tales of village life in the English countryside. The narrator in this case is the school teacher, and the story brings to life all of the little details, trials and triumphs in a village school. In the beginning is a terrible storm that brings down a large tree crashing into the church. The repair cost for fixing the damage is estimated at almost 2,000 pounds – much more than the villagers can imagine raising. They execute a number of funding plans, such as a jumble sale, subscription drive, bake sale, etc. The most ambitious plan is the Fairacre Festival, which is hoped to attract people from neighboring towns to the rides, attractions, concerts and commerce. As a last resort, they may need to sell the Queen Anne communion chalice to raise the needed funds. But at the last minute, unexpected donations come in from America, where a previous village resident has moved to and raised money on their behalf. A very pleasant, not overly sentimental story written in an informal and engaging style.


Fanning the Flame
Kat Martin
Romance
Fiction
Rating 2
Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
2002



Poor Jillian Whitney is left not only an orphan, but also penniless by the untimely death of her father. Luckily for her, she is taken under the protection of her father’s old friend, the Earl of Fenwick. Even though the Earl is elderly and only has her best interests at heart, society gossip makes her out to be his mistress. One day in the park, she is introduced to Adam Hawthorne, Earl of Blackwood, by his friend Clayton Barclay, Duke of Rathmore, and he is strangely drawn to her, although he fears the gossip about her may be true. He’s had bad experiences with women before, so he’s determined to be wary. One night when he is walking past the Earl’s house, he hears a commotion and discovers that the Earl has been killed. Jillian comes running out in to the dark, trying to escape the servants, who she rightly believe suspect her of the deed, although as she points out, she would have no possible motive. Adam spirits her away to his house nearby and hides here there, while he and Clay attempt to discover the real culprit. Part of him is afraid that she is truly guilty, and though he is attracted to her, he dares not trust her. One day when the Earl is not home, the Watchmen show up and arrest Jillian, and it’s only the influence of the Earl and Duke of Rathmore that gets her released into his custody, although she is concerned for his reputation being connected with an impoverished and notorious maiden. The Bow Street Runners that Adam hires to investigate the crime discover that the Earl had planned to change his will to leave his fortune to Jillian, but died first, so his nephew Howard inherits instead, and Howard raises such a stink about Jillian not being in prison that Adam has no choice but to remove themselves to Blackwood Manor in the country, in spite of the taint of scandal that would bring upon his family. This is unusual for the average Regency romance in that it has a lot more sex than expected and it happens right here at Blackwood Manor. Of course, this complicates things, since Jillian is under a cloud of suspicion, but even if she wasn’t, she’s still a penniless waif that’s no match for a wealthy Earl. The next surprise to show up is young Christopher Derry, who a distant Vicar claims is the love child of Adam and his betrothed Caroline Harding, who cheated on Adam with his cousin Robert. Now that his adoptive parents have died, the Vicar hopes the Earl will take him under his protection, but the memories of his faithless fiancee and cousin make it difficult for Adam to treat the boy kindly. With the arrest of Colin Norton, Fenwick’s crooked solicitor, things finally appear to be looking up for Jillian. But then someone comes forward to provide an alibi for Norton, so they’re basically back where they started. Fortunately, the Runners working for them discover that two people in Fenwick’s family lied about their whereabouts, and who coincidentally would have been at a disadvantage if Fenwick lived to change his will as he planned. They concoct a daring midnight raid on Fenwick’s library, looking for clues, and are surprised by Fenwick’s nephew Howard, but in the ensuing scuffle, Howard is shot by his sister-in-law, and he admits their part in killing Fenwick before he died. The sister-in-law is arrested, thus clearing Jillian of the crime, although her reputation is still too besmirched for Adam to consider marrying her, as his family points out to both of them. To head off any careless action on Adam’s part, Jillian pretends to have a prior attachment, and she leaves to take a position as a governess. This makes Adam’s family happy, especially his sister whose match to the stuffy aristocratic Dutton family had been threatened by the scandal swirling around her brother. Once Adam ascertains that Dutton will marry his sister regardless of the scandal, he convinces Jillian to marry him the same day. This is more of a potboiler than a Regency romance, with little to redeem it. The story lurches from one crisis to another, and at 400 pages, is woefully over-padded, not to mention over-plotted for a supposed romance. The sex is graphic and pervasive, as well as being hopelessly out of place, not only for these types of stories, but for the actual period itself. The characters entirely fail to engage, as Adam varies between dour stoicism and raging anger, while Jillian, instead of being the sharp and spunky heroine of fanciful imagination, comes across as a neurotic and vapid wimp. Its attempt at a happy ending is marred by all of the roiling melodrama that precedes it, making it impossible to believe, and even less that anyone would care. Extremely disappointing and even more, misleading to readers of Regency romances, expecting something else altogether.


Fasten Your Seat Belts
(The Passionate Life of Bette Davis)
Lawrence J. Quirk
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
William Morrow
1990



Little Ruth Elizabeth Davis grew up to become screen legend Bette Davis, making over 80 films, plus working in radio and TV and theater for over 60 years. She was involved in some of the greatest films of all time, and recognized as a great actress by her peers. Because she was from a very dysfunctional family and had a somewhat shaky upbringing, she later lurched from one miserable, abusive relationship to another. She also had terrible, antagonistic relationships with her employers and commonly feuded with fellow actors. Although this dense and overly detailed book is a love letter to its subject, she still manages to come off looking like a petulant child – always blaming bad scripts and incompetent directors for what she perceives as her lack of success. Written with textbook accuracy and impeccable research credentials, it is unfortunately dull and uninviting.


Feast of Murder
Jane Haddam
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Bantam Books, Bantam Doubleday Dell
1992



This author writes murder mysteries set around different holidays, and this one is Thanksgiving. It begins with Donald McAdam, a very successful financier, and owing to his contacts and dealings with so many of the biggest banking and investment firms, he has been able to help the FBI convict numerous high-powered executives for various white-collar crimes. He is almost universally loathed, and no one cares much when he dies, apparently from cocaine laced with strychnine. Meanwhile, Jon Baird of Baird Financial invites his family and business associates aboard his replica of the Mayflower for a traditional Thanksgiving holiday. One of the people invited is Gregor Demarkian, a retired FBI agent who (I’m surmising) does a little amateur sleuthing throughout this series of books. The first day out of port, Gergor finds Charlie Shay, one of the partners at Baird Financial, dead of strychnine poisoning. Because the replica has no radio or navigation system, it isn’t possible to contact the police or pull into a nearby port so the death can be investigated. Gregor does his best to secure the body for examination, but he knows it would be all too easy for anyone to throw it overboard to thwart his investigation, and in fact, that is just what happens. Gregor questions everyone on board, but he is pretty much convinced it was Jon Baird behind both murders, and that’s how it turns out. Even though Jon was in prison when Donald McAdam died, it turns out he had a complicated bridge that would conveniently break and Charlie Shay would bring him a replacement. The bridge was actually hollow and could be filed with strychnine, for instance, which was mixed with the glue on the envelope that was given to Donald McAdam when he was apparently bought out by Baird Financial, and he died after licking the envelope. That whole transaction was just a ruse, and so was Jon Baird going to prison for insider trading – it was all part of Jon’s plan to exact his revenge on McAdam and have a perfect alibi. It then became necessary to eliminate Charlie Shay because he knew too much. What Jon didn’t know, but Gregor found out, was that Charlie Shay was supposed to destroy the contracts and envelopes when they came back in the mail, but Jon’s nephew inadvertently rescued them without recognizing the significance of it. This book is well written in a very hard-hitting and macho style, reminiscent of Nelson DeMille and very unlike a woman writer. Unfortunately, all of the characters are unlikable, boring or worse, and the story is mostly a tangled and impenetrable web of financial chicanery, red herrings and sub-plots that go nowhere. There’s no mystery to speak of, since even I figured it out (and I never figure things out) so you’re left with pages and pages full of people that you really don’t care about. Even Gregor and his erstwhile girlfriend Bennis Hannaford are flat and uninteresting, and no one ever becomes a real person in the story. Although the story never flags, it has a kind of manic desperation that leaves you tired and ultimately dissatisfied.


Fire & Ice
Robert W. Wells & Don Davenport
History
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Northword, Inc.
1983


This is actually two books printed back-to-back and upside-down, so the book has two fronts and no back. The first story is “Fire at Peshtigo” and it details the events of the Peshtigo fire which occurred on October 8, 1871. This was the same date as the famous Chicago fire (of O’Leary’s cow fame) and because it occurred in a lumber town out in the woods, it has been all but forgotten. But it killed 1,200 people (five times more than the other fire), destroyed one million acres of forest and farmland, and erased the town of Peshtigo. Told in a gripping, journalistic style, this story grabs you with its power and immediacy, until you can almost smell the smoke. It is full of fascinating anecdotal detail, but the facts never overwhelm the heart of the story. The second story is “Shipwreck on Lake Michigan” and it tells the tale of the ill-fated Carl D. Bradley, a merchant ship which sank in a bad storm in 1958. Because this story has a narrower focus than the fire story, it has a lot more detail to fill it out. Also, because it is more recent, there is much more documentation that can be thrown in. Although shipwrecks are always dramatic, this story tends to bog down in minutiae, and go for facts over feelings. All of the participants are described unflinchingly, warts and all, and it’s difficult to really care about them. The story ultimately deteriorates into the legal wrangles, charges and counter-charges, lawsuits and mud-slinging that characterize modern disasters. Well-written, in a punchy, no-nonsense style, it pulls you along with is momentum, but has a rather unsatisfying ending.


The Firm
John Grisham
Drama
Fiction
Rating 5
Doubleday
1991


Graduate lawyer Mitch McDeere signs on with a prestigious law firm in Memphis for a very good salary and perks. He accidentally discovers that the firm is engaged in major illegal activities, and so far everyone who knew it and didn’t go along, has been killed. The secret is to keep quiet and stay alive, he figures. Unfortunately, the FBI is trying to bust things wide open and needs someone on the inside – if Mitch doesn’t cooperate with the good guys, he’ll get sunk along with the bad guys when the trap closes. Of course, he could get killed either way, especially with that famous Police protection. Well-written, taut and gripping all the way up to the explosive finale. I couldn’t put it down. Also made as a movie with Tom Cruise.


First We Have Coffee
(Life Lessons From Mama)
Margaret Jensen
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Here’s Life Books
1993



The author’s father was a Norwegian Baptist preacher who came to America and worked as a traveling Pastor among Scandinavian settlers in the Midwest and North. Although he was devoted to his family and loved learning, he was a stern and autocratic figure. His wife was the epitome of faith in action. She loved God and was therefore obedient to her husband. She never questioned her mission or bemoaned her fate – she simply rolled up her sleeves and did whatever needed to be done. Her innate wisdom, gentleness and generosity of spirit drew people to her in droves – looking for comfort, advice or just a shoulder to cry on. Whatever problem people brought to her, she always approached it the same way: “First we have coffee.” Her daughter’s account of her strength, courage and boundless love through tragedies, trials and triumphs is heart-warming and inspirational without being syrupy. Sentimental, humorous and entertaining; well-written besides.


The Fist of God
Frederick Forsyth
War
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Bantam Books
1994



This is a 500-page minute dissection of every detail of the Gulf War in 1990, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This author usually writes taut, intelligent and highly detailed espionage thrillers. This book has so much minutiae that it begins years before the war, and covers hundreds of people in dozens of countries, some only peripherally connected to the story. The basic story concerns soldiers being used as spies inside Iraq and the Iraqi spies working with them, and Saddam Hussein’s development of nuclear and biological weapons. Since he is such a good writer, it can’t help but be interesting, but the whole book is so far-flung and overwhelming compared to his usual novels. The Allied forces destroy Iraq’s inventory of weapons of mass destruction and their poison gas factories, and force the troops to withdraw from Kuwait. But we never learn the fate of Jericho – the high level Iraqi spy. (His identity is revealed in the book, so one hopes for the best.) A somewhat disappointing departure for this author.


Flirting With Death
M.D. Lake
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Avon Books / Hearst
1996



Campus cop Peggy O’Neill is bothered on her rounds by a scruffy young man, who it turns out has been a nuisance to other women at the University. When a lady veterinarian is killed at the agricultural complex, suspicion immediately falls on the fellow. When Peggy investigates further, she is stonewalled by the vet school administration, and stalked by the suspect. It turns out that the victim was killed for trying to prove irregularities in the vet school research. The suspect turns out to be the son of the Administrator, who was supposed to be drowned many years ago, and who now has no identity. He didn’t do it – it turned out to be the secretary who was trying to protect the family and vet school from scandal.


Floating Island
Emily Kimbrough
Travel
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Harper & Row
1968



The author is a noted socialite, fashion editor and bon vivant, and all of her travel books are charming and entertaining. For this excursion, she gathers a group of eleven friends and relatives (in an interesting coincidence, her sister-in-law is also named Emily Kimbrough) including Sophy and Cornelia Otis Skinner from previous books. The plan is to rent a converted barge, The Palinurus, in Samois (a village just south of Paris) and leisurely explore the towns along the canals, with bicycles on board for day trips, and a trusty VW MicroBus at their disposal for more involved travels. The group of eleven comes from all over and meets in Samois (and for Emily and Sophy and Cornelia, just getting to the right place on the right date is miraculous in itself) and meet their pilot (David) and crew (Jennifer and Emma.) The Captain, Richard Parsons, insists that the MicroBus cannot travel along with them, and must remain at Samois, due to the unpredictable nature of barge travel conditions and traffic at the locks. But after a 6-hour ride to Moret and exploring the quaint villages, Sophy discovers that it’s a mere 15-minute cab ride back to Samois, where she retrieves the bus and brings it back to Moret. Having the bus available greatly increases the scope of their sight-seeing opportunities, so everyone agrees to pitch in for the cab fares to re-collect the bus from its last stop. After a few days barging and even though the barge is set up to provide some separate areas where people could congregate together or remain apart, everyone realizes how much more they’ve learned about each other, even after being acquainted for many years. It is a joy of traveling slowly and in good company, although they also appreciate private time as well. We hear several cautionary tales about the peculiar lavatory facilities aboard barges, and although told in a humorous way, it would be enough to make a strong man quail at the prospect of using them. One of their motor excursions is to Vezelay, famous for its cathedral and a personal favorite of mine. In Auxerre, one of the group met a local doctor and his wife, and enjoyed them so much, he invited them aboard for dinner. This discomfited those others who spoke no French (including the one who invited them, whose linguistic fluency was described as a sort of pig-Latin of his own invention) and even among the French speakers, their competency of high school lessons reduced them to hilariously embarrassing inanities. The guests professed to be charmed, in spite of everything, and indeed asked if they could spend more time with the group. There’s a great outcry in Auxerre over difficulties in buying stamps, changing currency and even sightseeing, due to some religious holiday where everything has shut down. Even still, Emily, Sophy and Cornelia manage to make spectacles of themselves just buying clothes and visiting churches. They make a side trip to a winery where the proprietor treats them like simple-minded yokels with no appreciation of wine. One night, Emily believes she overhears a fight between the pilot and his girlfriend, and she rushes to protect Jennifer from his threats, but she is relieved to find out that the girl is prone to mild seizures, and David was merely protecting her from hurting herself. In Tonnerre, her brother and sister-in-law elect to scoot ahead of the rest of the group, to enjoy a few more days in Paris, thus missing the return of the French guests, and their host who exhausted the translating capacity of the bargers with his technical jargon. Emily and Cornelia reach even greater heights of peculiarity for trying to change money locally while the bank is closed, which they find out later is because of Paris Liberation Day, which the Americans find very touching. On a nasty day which everyone chose to wear their less fashionable garb, they chanced to run into the American Ambassador and Mrs. Bohlen, and they feel like a ratty bunch of ragamuffins. They enjoy touring the nearby chateaux, and all at once they’re in Ravieres, and celebrating their last night together. Their time on the barge is over, and the travelers are all spilling off in different directions – a few to Paris, this one to London, that one to Switzerland and so on. It was unfortunate that the ending snuck up so precipitously as it did, and made the ending very wistful. But these books are always interesting and entertaining, and with plenty of humor to spare. Well-written in a lively and engaging style, and if you’re not careful, you might actually learn something. This book seemed just a little bit crowded, with so many strangers, but the adventure was an interesting one, and the anecdotes were charming and amusing. This book was fun throughout and you hated to leave them in Ravieres.


Flying Dutch
Tom Holt
Humor
Fiction
Rating 5
St. Martin’s Press
1992


Julius Vanderdecker is the Captain of the Verdomde, a sailing ship form the 1500's. He and his crew inadvertently imbibed an immortality potion, and have been sailing around the world ever since, known forever as The Flying Dutchman. The potion made them stink horribly for 7 years and then skip a year, so they have been staying at sea except in their “clean” years. Jane Doland is a very minor CPA with an accounting firm, which in its very distant past, sold a life insurance policy to Captain Vanderdecker. It would ruin them now if he cashed it. This is a sprightly and engaging tale, well-written and charming, which manages to be funny, adventurous and sentimental all at the same time. The ending is excellent. It even lives up to the cover illustration, which is a hard trick to pull off.


Forever Old, Forever New
Emily Kimbrough
Travel
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Harper & Row
1964



Here is another in a series of travelogues by this writer, who is a famous socialite, fashion arbiter, bon vivant and jet-setter. This book describes another visit to her favorite destination of Greece, along with usual travel companion Sophy from previous books, and Sophy’s young grand-daughters, Meg and Meri. Alert readers already know that disaster follows Emily wherever she goes (and often precedes her as well) so it comes as no surprise that she endures a variety of obstacles at the airport and hotel upon her arrival, and all recounted with gentle humor and admirable forbearance. (The story about the rental Volkswagen is classic.) They set off for Nauplion, where they plan to make some excursions to the outlying areas, before returning to Athens. They have the usual trouble with hotel reservations that dogs Emily’s footsteps everywhere she goes. Next we hear of the ardent hospitality and gift-giving that the Greeks are historically famous for, especially for strangers. There is a detailed description of the Theater at Epidaurus, including an inserted first-person anecdote (these are interspersed between chapters) although their plans to attend a play there were postponed, it turned out, providentially so. Known for their passionate devotion and kindness even to strangers, the Greeks can also be bitterly vengeful when they feel provoked, and there follow some examples that are astonishing and alarming by turns. Next, a mutual friend arranges for all of them to meet with Dr. Mylonas, whose team is excavating Mycenae, which they visit with rapt attention. Then there is a chapter describing all manner of Greek stubbornness, as told by fellow Greeks with amazement tinged with indulgence. At last they see “Hecuba” at the Theater in Epidaurus, which is as exquisite and thrilling as it has been throughout history. Dr. Mylonas invites them to a lavish luncheon, which they can not attend due to the sort of disaster that is the hallmark of Emily’s travels. The chapter after that recounts the immutable timelessness of the Greek character, with examples that are alternately charming and exasperating. In her travels, Emily is always encountering natives that she longs to bring home, and this time no different, although she finds herself drawn to a couple of youngsters who greet them each day with flowers, which she discovers later, they filch from one of the irate neighbors. Finally they left Nauplion for the Olympia Hotel in Athens, where Emily had stayed before and found the service and amenities much the same (unpredictable) but with a new English-speaking maid. Once settled, they stepped outside on an errand and bumped into old friends unexpectedly. The chapter of Greeks telling stories about other Greek people is adorable and charming. They make plans to visit with their friends for dinner, cocktails or an evening of Greek folk dancing at an ancient theater, which they all enjoy, although their meal requests occasionally suffer from translation difficulties. There is a chapter devoted to Dora Stratou and her dance company that is interesting and informative. Once in Athens at the Olympia Hotel, where Emily had stayed on previous visits, it seems that everywhere they go, they bump into more locals who remember her from earlier trips and fall all over her like a long-lost relative. Though flattering and heart-warming, it does tend to hold up progress in shops, restaurants, taxis or tourist attractions. There is another typically Greek story about the director of the open-air Herod Atticus Theater expecting their friend, the famous Greek pianist Gina Bachau to store their new piano for them, so it is not left outdoors in the elements. There is a chapter on Greek heroism, or fatalism, during World War II including some horrible examples of villagers brutally mistreated by the Axis Powers, and the courage and determination of their Queen to get the country back on its feet again. As a funny aside to this is a story about Gina’s apartment being used for bivouac by soldiers, to the extent that when she needed to get ready for a concert, she had to get dressed in the elevator. Much is made of Emily’s unexpected ability to learn Greek numbers since her last visit, although this does not extend to the hotel bill, so she prevails upon Ellie in Gina’s vast family to help, which causes no end of consternation in the household, since Ellie is widely regarded as having no head for figures. Although everyone enjoys shopping in Greece, Emily observes that the highly competitive Greeks invariably clump together shops all selling the same items, and in fact, will sell a tourist something from a competitor’s store, if they don’t have what the person wants. On their last day in the village of Halandri, they happen upon a solemn procession of priests and villagers paying homage to a religious icon, in honor of what is obviously the saint’s festival day, but when word suddenly arrives that the village athletes have won some sort of contest in a nearby competition, the saint is unceremoniously packed away and the village erupts in a wild celebration instead, priests included. The last chapter is about Emily’s beloved Koula, a Greek serving girl she met at the hotel and brought back to New York with her. Although they found her “laissez-faire” attitude of child safety made her unsuitable to supervise the grandchildren, in other ways she was a delight of hard work, accommodation and loyalty. In fact, when Emily believed that she was helping Koula get set up in appropriate ways, she was always surprised to find instead that Koula already had her own ideas and stuck to them – which invariably worked out better than Emily’s more reasonable plans, because after all, that is the Greek way. This is another charming and enjoyable travel book, and a true love letter from a Greco-phile to Greece, although with warts and all. Not as laugh-out-loud funny as some of her other adventures, but with a gentle and relaxed feeling filled with warm humor and kind sentiment. Well-written as usual, and manages to be interesting, entertaining and wistful all at the same time.


Forty Plus and Fancy Free
Emily Kimbrough
Travel
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Harper & Row
1954



The author is a writer, as well as a print journalist and radio personality. This book is a delightful and amusing chronicle of a trip she took through France, Italy and England with a few of her contemporaries. She refers to all of them affectionately as The Traveling Grandmothers. Her writing is lively and inviting, and their adventures are recounted with wit and attention to detail. Her observations are more like a novel than a travelogue and unfailingly interesting. As part of their travels, they were in London for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and she reported it for her radio program. Well-written in an informal, engaging style, with anecdotes that range from the mildly amusing to the laugh-out-loud riotous. A very sweet and entertaining book.


4:50 From Paddington (or What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!)
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Harper Collins
1957
ISBN 0451200519

Elspeth McGillicuddy is traveling on an afternoon train from London, to visit her friend Miss Marple in St. Mary Mead, when she sees a man strangle a young woman in a passing train. She sees the body go limp and is convinced she has witnessed a murder. However, train officials disparage her concerns, and even Police inquiries turn up no body. Here, Miss Marple takes matters into her own hands, taking the trains back and forth to see where different trains pass each other, and looking for any likely spot where someone could dump a body. She calls on her friend Lucy Eylesbarrow, and they plan to descend on Rutherford Hall in Brackhampton, posing as a domestic and her maiden aunt, while they poke around looking for clues. The resourceful Lucy soon finds the body, hidden in a decorative sarcophagus in an unused barn on the estate. But the victim appears to be a total stranger to all of the far-flung Crackenthorpes who gather for the inquest. Inspector Craddock turns up from Scotland Yard to investigate. He soon learns some interesting things about the family, for instance, the late grandfather’s fortune passes over the current family patriarch, Luther Crackenthorpe, who is widely supposed to be an invalid, but there’s a lot of life in the old codger yet. His father’s estate passes directly to his children when he dies, a fact which rankles, and which might make his children eager for his demise. His oldest son Edmund was killed in the war, leaving the bohemian Cedric to inherit his share. Harold only appears to be a tycoon, but financially is in shaky shape, and Alfred is nothing but a small-time chiseler and never very flush. Sensible Emma takes care of her father, and seems satisfied with her lot in life. Then there’s son-in-law Brian Eastley, a widower, and his son Alexander. The Inspector hears an interesting tale about Martine, a French woman that Edmund met and wanted to marry, just before he was killed. Coincidentally, around the time of the murder (just before Christmas) Emma received a letter from a woman claiming to be Martine, and said she and Edmund had been married and had a son. Emma invited her to visit, and was going to have their lawyer look into it, but she never came. The woman on the train was murdered at the same time, leading to speculation that the victim was Martine. However, her death wouldn’t change anyone’s inheritance, so the motive is problematical. Then incredibly, a neighbor comes to call, and she insists she is the real Martine. Next, the entire family is laid low with a bad case of arsenic poisoning, except Lucy who cooked the meal. She’s not really a suspect, but everyone is surprised when Alfred dies instead of his father. Harold is just starting to feel better, when he takes some poisoned medication, and he dies too. Poor Inspector Craddock doesn’t know which way to turn, but Miss Marple figures out it must be a tontine, where each person who gets murdered serves to increase the share of the heirs who are left. In the end, it turns out to be Dr. Quimper, the family physician who had been treating Mr. Crackenthorpe for years, and it turns out the victim was his own wife. He had been trying to dump her for years and marry Emma for her (eventual) money, and presumably kill the old man as well, but first bump off the other heirs. This book stated off like gang-busters and ran crackling along right up to the end, but then it really fell apart. The wheels started to come off when the neighbor turned out to be Martine, and the brothers died without so much as a murmur out of anyone. And then to drag in the doctor’s mysterious estranged wife (who presumably has no family to notice her disappearance?) well, it was just too contrived and far-fetched. Well-written and gripping, but with a really disappointing ending. Plus, it just ends there, like falling off a table, without a satisfying epilogue to wrap up the loose ends.


Funerals Are Fatal (or After The Funeral)
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 4
Simon & Schuster
1953


Richard Abernethie died in his sleep at Enderby Hall. But when his sister Cora is brutally murdered, the family begins to wonder if the deaths are related. Similar to “The Orient Express” in that everyone seems to have the means, opportunity and motive to commit the murders. Hercule Poirot comes in at the end to solve the crime. It turns out that Richard died naturally, but Cora was killed by her long-time companion, who coveted an art find.