TITLES P - Q - R

The Pale Horse
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 5
Dodd, Mead
1961


Mrs. Davis calls for a priest, so Father Gorman goes to her rented rooms, just before she dies unexpectedly after a brief illness. She gives Father Gorman a list of names, which he is supposed to do something with, but unfortunately, the good Father is killed after he leaves Mrs. Davis’ flat. Inspector Lejeune and Dr. Corrigan, the Police Pathologist, begin investigating the list, which was found in the Priest’s shoe. Dr. Corrigan runs into his old school chum, Mark Easterbrook, and they fall to talking about the case – it turns out they both know different parts of the same thing. Mark knows two people on the list who recently died under non-mysterious circumstances. But Mark has been to The Pale Horse, where the mysterious women there claim they can kill someone by “remote control.” Mark and his friend Ginger Corrigan come up with a plan to pose as a potential client and the victim, to see if they can expose the whole operation. (One name on the list is “Corrigan” so both Ginger and Dr. Corrigan have a good reason to figure out what’s really going on.) Mark makes the arrangements with the go-between, Mr. Bradley, claiming to be a man looking to marry, whose estranged wife is making difficulties. (Ginger is playing the part of the wife, taking a flat in London and using a disguise.) Realizing the risk Ginger is taking, Mark explains the plan to Inspector Lejeune. At first, Ginger seems fine, but then she develops a cold that turns into pneumonia, and she just seems to go from bad to worse. The book has a bang-up ending, like boxcars piling up in a train wreck, and a lot of things happening at once. It turns out the mastermind behind the scheme is mild-mannered Pharmacist Mr. Osborne, who pretends to have seen the murderer of Father Gorman (actually, he murdered the Padre) and tries in vain to pin it on the mysterious Mr. Venables, who apparently is just a red herring. A person looking to “remove” an inconvenient obstacle visits Mr. Bradley, who quite legally, arranges a “wager” that the victim will die by a certain date, opposed to the client, who bets otherwise. The client then attends a seance at The Pale Horse, where they promise supernatural means will do in the victim. What actually happens is that an apparently reputable consumer survey company sends a surveyor to the neighborhood, including the victim, and asks questions about household products they use. Mr. Osborne then adds Thallium to a product that the victim already uses, disguises himself as a meter reader or repairman, gains access to the victim’s home and switches the regular product with the tainted one. After a few weeks, the victim starts to exhibit vague symptoms that may turn into a variety of serious complaints. Fortunately, a common thread among the victims is their hair falls out easily, which is an indication of Thallium poisoning – so they were able to save Ginger before it was too late. They discover that the late Mrs. Davis, who started all of this, was one of the surveyors, and she uncovered something, so she was eliminated. This is a rip-roaring, cracker-jack mystery with a lot of very likable characters, atmosphere and an extremely clever plot. (The only part that doesn’t hold together is that it was never established how Mr. Osborne knew Mr. Venables to pick him as the fall guy.) Also in the book is an exquisite self-parody, Mrs. Oliver, who is a somewhat ditzy and befuddled mystery writer. She is sharply drawn and a true joy. An excellent book, entertaining throughout, without a wrong note. One of this author’s best, from a master of the genre.


Pale Kings And Princes
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Bantam Doubleday Dell
1987



Boston Private Investigator Spenser is hired by a newspaper to probe the death of one of their reporters who was doing a drug investigation. When he arrives in the small backwoods town, he is stone-walled by the Police and hindered by the other authorities. When he must spend more time in the town investigating, he invites Susan and Hawk along for help and company. The story gets pretty complicated among the drug dealers, the crooked cops, local rednecks and illegal immigrants, but like all these books, it’s well-written in a lively, entertaining style. And of course, Spenser and Hawk defeat the bad guys in the end.


Panic in Box C
John Dickson Carr
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Harper & Row
1966



This book begins on an ocean liner from England to New York. Amateur sleuth Dr. Fell is speaking with author Philip Knox about fellow passenger actress Margery Vane. Many years before, she and her partner Adam Cayley, started a repertory company in Richbell (standing in for Larchmont) but he died on opening night and the company disbanded. She is coming back now to try again with a new company, but things start going wrong almost at once. Of course everyone in the company is either obnoxious or obviously hiding something. Then during a dress rehearsal, someone murders Margery while she is alone locked in Box C. The second half of the book is spent examining everyone’s means, opportunities and motives to commit the crime. Although the writer is famous for dozens of “locked-room mysteries,” I found the characters uniformly unappealing and the dialogue confusing, contrived and grating. In the end, it turns out Margery was killed by Bess Harkness, her long-time companion (only the biggest cliche in the world) for ruining the career of an actor that Bess idolized. She is killed by the police while attempting a second murder. A pleasant aside to this story is the reconciliation of Philip Knox with his estranged wife, and although they are the most likable people in this tale, that still does not do them all that much credit. It also has one priceless gem discussing towns in lower Westchester County that almost makes up for the rest of this over-blown mish-mash.


Paper Doll
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 2
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
1993



Loudon Tripp hires Boston Private Investigator Spenser to find the killer of his wife when the Police are stymied. There seem to be no clues in her recent life as a wealthy socialite, so Spenser probes into her past in South Carolina. It turns out the real Olivia Nelson married an African when she was in the Peace Corps and settled in Nairobi. It was an illegitimate daughter of her father’s that pretended to be Olivia Nelson, the wealthy socialite who married into Boston society. But they spent more money than they had, and her plan to blackmail her father (another tycoon who had since lost everything) was ruined when she was killed by her father’s long-time manservant. The whole thing was so utterly pathetic that Spenser decided against pursuing it further. Susan and Martin Quirk make it into this story (also Pearl the Wonder Dog) but not Hawk.


Paper Lion
George Plimpton
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Signet / Harper & Row
1964



Born to wealth and privilege, this author dabbles in many different fields, trying to be a kind of “everyman observer” and writing about his experiences from an insider’s perspective. In other books, he writes about pitching with the New York Yankees and boxing with Archie Moore. This book describes his quarterbacking stint with the Detroit Lions. He begins by recounting his various attempts, through several years, of getting a football team to allow him to participate. His first rejection was by the coach of the Western Conference in the Pro Bowl, followed quickly by the New York Giants. He appeared to be making some progress with the New York Titans, and then the Baltimore Colts, but both eventually fizzled. Finally, the owner of the Lions seemed taken with the idea, and invited him to join their training camp in July 1963. So he finds himself in Cranbrook, a boys academy in the outskirts of Detroit, where the Lions train. He meets the coaching staff and other team staff, plus the players, including Terry Barr, Joe Schmidt, Earl Morrall and Night Train Lane, who was married to singer Dinah Washington. He was in a unique position to get along with everyone, and he did. Because he was older than most players, the coaches felt comfortable socializing with him. The regular players didn’t consider him a threat to their jobs, so they were generally friendly and gracious toward him. Even the rookies felt a kinship with him, since he was newer to this than they were. The book very closely examines the real nuts-&-bolts day-to-day workings of a professional football team, and it can’t help but be interesting, like peeking behind a curtain. The players and coaches are a never-ending source of anecdotes about each other, other teams and former players, notably Bobby Layne and Alex Karras. Because everything is so new, the writing never lags, and simply bounds along on its own energy. In training camp, he spends most of his time with the offense, but he also sits in with the defense and special teams, to gain a better understanding of the team as a whole. He learns a few plays and practices them as hard as he can. But after weeks in camp, his debut in an inter-squad game is a disaster. Played at a nearby high school and a very popular local event, his plays are a series of mix-ups, fumbles and miscues, losing 30 yards in the bargain. Leaving the field, he is given a warm reception by the crowd, which he feels has been vindicated in its impression that football is too difficult for an amateur to do well. He leaves shortly after, although there is an epilogue that recounts other stories afterward, many of them sad. This book overall is interesting enough, but it has several problems. The writing is not especially lively or engaging, and it often deteriorates into the petulant whining of a spoiled boy at camp, who feels his is treated badly by his bunkmates. It also suffers from page after page of the most egregious typos I have ever seen in a reputable book, and they’re so distracting that they can’t help but mar the enjoyment of it. The book is nearly redeemed by some hilarious anecdotes and evocative descriptions of events like Rookie Night, Alex Karras playing Toastmaster, and rookies singing their school song. My favorite was when he described a disastrous production of “Macbeth” from his school days, and it was such a howl that you wished for a whole book like that. It’s entertaining enough in its own way, but it doesn’t resonate, and the ending is wistful and sloppy.


The Partner
John Grisham
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Island Books / Dell Publishing
A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
1997

Lawyer Patrick Lanigan apparently fakes his own death and then contrives to steal $90 million paid as a fee to his law firm. The firm hires a bounty hunter to find him, which they do, four years later in Brazil. But Patrick has an accomplice, Eva, who when she realizes that he’s been snatched, she transfers all of his funds elsewhere, and she goes into hiding. But first, she notifies the FBI in the hopes that they can rescue Patrick from the bounty hunter’s torture squad before it’s too late. They do, and bring Patrick back to face murder charges (the dead body assumed to be his) and grand larceny. Everyone wants a piece of this case, from the law firm wanting their money back, to the insurance company who paid Patrick’s “widow” Trudy $2.5 million on his “death” – and who has been living happily high on the hog with her sleazy boyfriend all this time. Meanwhile, the bounty hunters are doing their best to locate Eva, hiding in Europe, since she holds the key to the missing $90 million. Sandy McDermott, Patrick’s pal from law school, is retained as his lawyer, and his first job is to sue the FBI for torturing Patrick, complete with gruesome pictures of his wounds splashed all over the media. The next thing is the divorce from Trudy, who agrees to waive any claims to his (possible) assets when confronted with the information from Patrick’s private investigator, with detailed evidence of her infidelity, and DNA proof that her daughter is not Patrick’s child. Little by little, as the lawyers take depositions, we begin to hear details of the various crimes. How Benny Aricia blew the whistle on his company bilking the government on military contracts, and the $90 million was the settlement he was to receive and split with Patrick’s law firm. How the law firm was planning to divide the money up, leaving out Patrick, even though he was a partner. How he bugged the phones and offices at the law firm, so he knew to show up where the money was being transferred, pretending to be the senior partner, and authorized another transfer into an account of his own. How he faked his own death by rolling his car over in a ditch and setting it on fire. How the bounty hunters spent millions and countless man-hours to track him down. Suddenly the bounty hunters snatch Eva’s father, trying to bring her to them, so Sandy leans on the FBI to make them release her father. But once the FBI knows who she is, they grab her instead for questioning. Next, Sandy cuts deals with the major players because Patrick has documentation that the whistle-blower case was a fraud perpetrated by Benny Aricia and the law firm, the FBI drops their charges against him in exchange for returning the $90 million (less four years of interest) and Patrick’s evidence. Plus they release Eva and keep her protected. The insurance companies behind the bounty hunters, who don’t want to be implicated in the business of Patrick’s torture, agree to let his ex-wife keep her insurance money and set up a trust fund for her daughter. That leaves only the state murder charge, reduced to manslaughter because the body remains unidentified. (The state lacks evidence because the accident was not originally investigated as a murder.) The supposed victim is a young local ne’er-do-well named Pepper Scarboro, who Patrick says he helped assume a new identity and star afresh on the west coast. Finally Patrick tells Sandy the story about an elderly man he had befriended following an injury case, who was estranged from his family, and when he died, Patrick used his body in the crash. Sandy made a generous settlement with the family so they wouldn’t sue, and that was the last prop holding up the state’s case against Patrick. So he pleads guilty to a charge of mutilating a corpse (the state digs up the deceased’s coffin to make sure he’s not in there) and the state gives him a deal for a suspended sentence and no jail time. He walks out of court free (and wealthy) and plans to meet Eva in France. This is when he tells Sandy that he was the one who tipped off the bounty hunters, so he could finally escape from a life of running. Unfortunately, when he gets to France, he finds that Eva is already one step ahead of him and has disappeared with all of his money, and that’s where the book ends. I suppose anyone might think this was an appropriate ending, where Patrick gets his come-uppance, and also the crooks, but it’s still ultimately unsatisfying. It actually starts out as a crackerjack thriller and grabs you right on the first page, being well-written and taut, like all of this author’s books. But it reminds me a lot of “Dirty Tricks” in the sense that all of the characters are either sketchy or obnoxious, so you really don’t care what happens to them. The supposed love angle between Patrick and Eva is implausible, and in the end, the motivations lack realism. This is plain formulaic story-telling with a trick ending that is much too simplistic for all of the intricate and ponderous build-up. A shorter version of this might have had merit, but as it is, it’s a long-winded and melodramatic pot-boiler with a bad ending.


Partners in Crime
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Dell Publishing
1981
Dodd, Mead
1929



Tommy and Tuppence Beresford appear in several books over the years and this is early in their career. He has a desk job with the Secret Service and they also do some sub-rosa amateur sleuthing. In this book, they’ve taken over a disreputable detective agency (so the “Feds” can keep an eye on their suspicious clients) and it’s actually a series of two-minute mysteries woven together in the overall plot of what’s behind this dubious operation. Their career as private detectives starts off with a bang when Tuppence locates a missing fiancée - but it turned out that she had concocted the whole thing to drum up business, convincing the young lady to pretend to be missing so her boyfriend would hire them to find her. Next, they’re called to an estate where some jewelry is missing and the two most obvious suspects are busy making aliases for each other, which they needn’t bother since it turned out to be a visitors maid. After that, they have a visit from an unsavory customer of the original proprietor, something to do with Russian military secrets or something, but luckily they outsmart him and his smooth partner pretending to be a Scotland Yard inspector. Then they attend a costume party where a woman is killed, ostensibly by her two-timing lover, but they discover it was instead her jealous husband dressed in the same costume. Next comes a funny vignette of a young lady who has disappeared from her fiancé returning from abroad, although they suspect foul play, has gone to a fat farm before he comes back. In between cases, they practice playing famous detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Thornley Colton (who happened to be blind) from mystery fiction. While Tommy is pretending to be a blind detective, he is abducted by two unsavory gentlemen with ties to the original agency and they try to kill him on an electrified floor, using his blind man’s eyeshade, not realizing it that is a phony that Tommy can see through, so he foils their plans. Then they stumble upon a famous actress, whose husband from an ill-advised early marriage won’t agree to a divorce and when she turns up dead, no one suspects the husband since he’s the policeman who turns up conveniently at the scene. After that, their contact at Scotland Yard asks them to infiltrate a high society bunch of fast livers who keep passing counterfeit bank notes and the mastermind turns out to be the supposed yokel from Alabama instead of the more obvious suspects. Once again in between cases, they attack a sensational case from the newspaper about Captain Sessle being murdered on the golf course with a hat pin. They realize the mysterious woman in brown is not only the son of Sessle’s crooked partner, but also played the part of Sessle himself by switching clothes with the victim and finishing his round with no one close enough to see it was Sessle’s clothes only. Next they get a very confused case of attempted poisonings in a big estate with relatives angling for their inheritance, an it turns out to be the aged companion of the original mistress who had built up an immunity to the drug and was poisonings everyone between her and the family fortune. A young man asks them to help win a bet with his fiancée who claims to have an unshakable alibi being in two places at once, naturally with the help of her unknown twin sister. Then they help a poor minister’s daughter unearth her late aunt’s fortune, which has been buried in the vegetable garden. Next is another confused tale of mixed-up luggage, which leads to a drug-smuggling gang. In the last story, they finally meet the mysterious Russian agent who was behind the whole detective agency facade, and it nearly proves to be their undoing, because he sneaks Tuppence away from under their noses, using a series of seemingly unconnected hotel rooms and accomplices acting as decoys and fortunately they catch him disguised as an American woman before he has a chance to harm Tuppence. Which is a good thing, because she announces that they will have to retire from being detectives, for their new job as expectant parents. It’s a cute ending to a very entertaining book. The mysteries are all interesting, although sometimes a little too mysterious for their own good, as the explanations, hastily delivered, fail entirely to disperse the confusion. The conceit of pretending to be other fictitious detectives might work better with better-known characters than the ones they refer to, although that’s a small point. One tiresome aspect is how it’s continually drummed into the reader how very special and sophisticated is this young couple (a la Nick and Nora Charles of “The Thin Man”) but for all of this insistence, they never come across that way. But still, they’re a jolly and game couple, evenly matched, and the writing in lively and engaging as expected and it moves along effortlessly with no lags. A very pleasant trifle from the master of the genre.


Pastime
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 4
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
1991



In “Early Autumn,” Boston Private Investigator Spenser rescued young Paul Giacomin from his warring parents, and became in effect his guardian. Ten years later, Paul asks him to locate his mother who has disappeared. It turns out her boyfriend was involved in some scheme with local gangster Joe Broz, also coming back from previous books, with son Gerry and right-hand man Vinnie Morris. This story also includes a lot of biographical information about Spenser, which is interesting without being intrusive. In the end, Spenser and Hawk rescue Paul’s mother, and Vinnie leaves Joe Broz after Gerry and Spenser have a few run-ins. A real winner of this series. This story introduces Pearl the Wonder Dog.


The Pelican Brief
John Grisham
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Doubleday
1992


Two Supreme Court justices have been murdered. Law student Darby Shaw stumbles onto the truth, so of course she has the bad guys, the CIA, the FBI and the media all chasing her. Not to mention, the famous police protection. She’s working with a journalist, Gray Grantham, and they end up together at the end. This is well-written and taut, like all of Grisham’s, but the chase genre is getting tired. Also made as a movie with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.


The Penthouse Mystery
Ellery Queen
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Pyramid Books
1941



Mystery writer Ellery Queen and his father, Police Inspector Queen, get mixed up in the murder of Gordon Cobb, a traveling ventriloquist. Upon his return to New York from a visit to China, he was murdered in his hotel room. It turns out that he was working with a pro-China underground group smuggling jewelry out of China to the U.S. to raise funds for relief efforts. However, with his murder, the location of the jewelry becomes a mystery. It turns out that his manager and some card sharps were working together to steal the jewelry and keep the money themselves. However, the scheme came a cropper and two murders later, the jewelry is still nowhere to be found. Eventually, Ellery locates the ventriloquist dummy, which has the information about finding the jewelry. These stories are typically well-written in a jaunty informal style, but they also tend to be hopelessly over-plotted and dense.


The Plague and I
Betty MacDonald
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
J.B. Lippincott Company
1948



This author also wrote the auto-biographical “The Egg and I” which was later turned into a movie with Claudette Colbert. This book takes a sharp but light-hearted look at that period in her adult life when she had tuberculosis and stayed in a sanatorium. She likens getting TB at mid-life with going downtown to do a bunch of urgent errands, and getting hit by a bus. At this time, she was divorced and living with her mother, along with her two young daughters. She worked for the government and in fact, a number of people there were infected with TB from a co-worker – a fact which the government regarded with bored indifference. She is devastated at the news of her diagnosis and doesn’t know how she will afford the cure. She feels fortunate when a relative pulls some strings and gets her into “The Pines,” a well-regarded free sanatorium with a long waiting list. After she gets there, it’s hard for her to feel quite so fortunate – the staff is brusque, almost rude, the regimen Spartan and inflexible, and the other patients seem defeated and maudlin. She discovers how difficult it can be, taking a bunch of total strangers, plucked out of the middle of their busy lives, and plunk them in a room together, all day, every day with no privacy, and expect them to stay quietly in their beds with no talking, reading, moving around or any other activities. She has a series of roommates who are a real mixed bag, and she describes them in unflinching terms. After being there three months and having a couple of minor procedures to make her lungs stronger, she has improved to the point that she is allowed more “up” time and activities. Her descriptions of physical and occupational therapy are hilarious and priceless. After another three months as an ambulant patient, finally the big day arrives and she is discharged. It turns out to be just as big an adjustment getting out of the sanatorium, as it was going in. She feels overwhelmed, overly sensitive, vulnerable and very noticeable. She seems to think that no one understands her, and apparently this is a common trait among the patients, so they spend most of their time socializing with former patients and staff from the sanatorium. Eventually, she feels independent enough to take a course to brush up her shorthand, and finally talks herself into looking for a job. Instead, she runs into an old friend of her sister’s, who it turns out is desperate to hire a secretary, and there she is. This is a sprightly, charming book, written with sparkling wit and great tenderness. It is so cleverly written that it manages to be funny without being phony, and gentle without being sentimental. The writing is lively and informal, and really makes you feel you’re right there with all of them. Highly entertaining and delightful throughout.


Plum Island
Nelson DeMille
Crime Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Warner Books
1997


NYC Homicide detective John Corey, injured on the job, is recovering at his uncle’s beach house in Southold, in Suffolk County on Long Island. Nearby Plum Island is a top-secret federal animal disease research facility. Two scientists from there, Tom and Judy Gordon, are murdered on their deck, and officials investigating immediately assume is has something to do with their work on viruses. The local police request his help as a favor, and also because he knew the victims. John Corey is written almost as a mirror-image of Robert B. Parker’s “Spenser” – tough but intelligent, hard-boiled yet moral – with lots of detailed descriptions of clothes and food. But he is much more obnoxious, low-class and doesn’t have Spenser’s redeeming wit and snappy banter. The story really bogs down once it is established that the crime was not committed for viruses, but rather for buried pirate treasure. A local businessman and bon vivant, Frederic Tobin, cultivated the Gordons to retrieve the treasure from Plum Island (where it would be government property) to their own property, where they agreed to split the proceeds. Of course, there was a falling-out among thieves, and Tobin killed them. John Corey is the only person who figured this out, and while he was investigating the case, he spoke to some local people who were in turn killed by Tobin in an effort to thwart the investigation. The denouement where Corey catches Tobin during a hurricane is so contrived, like a bad “Police Woman” episode. The ending, where he retires from the force and becomes a professor, and begins a tentative relationship with Beth Penrose, another detective, is oddly depressing. Interesting but derivative, done better before and since.


Pride and Joy
Terri Casey
Reference
Non-Fiction
Rating 2
Beyond Words Publishing
1998


It is the author’s contention that women without children are subject to cultural stereotypes, and perceived as unhappy, unfulfilled, selfish, unfeminine, immature, short-sighted and uncaring. It was her intention to write a book showing the wide diversity of women who have made that choice, and how their lives are anything but selfish and unfulfilled. To that end, she interviewed 25 women from all over the country, and a variety of backgrounds, socially, ethnically, economically and sexual orientation. It’s a noble effort, and the book fairly reeks of ponderous importance and social significance. Unfortunately, in spite of the diversity of the subjects, the interviews uniformly suffer from a tedious sameness that is as unexpected as it is unwelcome. An additional drawback to the book is that it is written in a horrible typeface, small and faint, that is not only annoying but hard to read. The author insists the interviews were all fascinating and energizing, but none of that comes through in this dull and lifeless book. How much it would have gained from pictures, or even illustrations, to break up the pages of text, and breathe some life into these life-stories of what should be interesting and admirable successful women. But alas, there’s nothing but bad chapter quotes besides the interviews, making it very slow going, not to mention, tedious and unilluminating. Because statistically, women without children are better educated than the norm, things quickly degenerate into a exercise in navel-gazing that is not only tiresome, but utterly defeats the book’s purpose of making these women seem interesting and sympathetic. It just continues on and on and on, like a broken record, utterly failing to strike any spark or cover any new ground. One big problem is that although the interviewees range in age from their 20's to their 80's, the bulk of them are in their 30's and 40's, by a very wide margin Of 25 interviews, only six women are older than 50, and technically speaking, women under 50 could certainly still have children, so it can’t be said that the door has shut completely on all of their stories. It would have helped to “punch up” this book, in my opinion, to include a few famous women (famous people are inescapably interesting, all by themselves) or more very old women (whose child-free status is incontrovertible, not like the 20-year-olds) and who remained childless at a time in society when it was virtually unheard of. This is typical of a “vanity press” edition, which cried out for an editor ro maximize its good points, and more importantly, address its considerable short-comings. The whole book gets blown completely out of the water in the bibliography, when in spite of the author’s assertion that this book needed to be written to shed light on this phenomenon, she manages to list 12 earlier books on the same subject, not to mention, magazine articles and web sites. Well-meaning, but ultimately self-indulgent and disappointing. Also comes with a mission statement that is uproariously bad by any standards.


Promised Land
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Dell Publishing / Bantam Doubleday Dell
1976

This is an early entry in the Spenser series by this author, of the erudite Private Investigator from Boston. Harvey Shepard comes to his new office and hires Spenser to find his runaway wife, Pam, who left him and three teenagers in Hyannis. At their house, Spenser runs into Hawk, who he had known years earlier when they were both boxing, and who now is working as an enforcer for a loan shark named King Powers. Spenser suspects that Shepard owes money to him, and if Hawk is coming around, he has more problems than just his missing wife. Besides the family, Spenser questions the Barnstable Police and locals, trying to get a bead on where Pam may have gone. He finds her at a sort of “safe house” full of feminists in a run-down neighborhood (in fact, one of them gets into a fistfight with him) and although she seems unhappy, she’s not being held against her will. She doesn’t want to go home, so Spenser leaves her there, and he won’t tell her husband where she is, so he fires him and demands his advance money back. Although no longer technically on any case, Spenser is dis-satisfied with the situation, especially since Hawk has roughed up Shepard, so he meets with Deke Slade at the Police, and they swap information. Suddenly, Pam Shepard calls him up in a panic because some of the feminists held up a bank and killed a guard, and now she’s in all sorts of trouble. Spenser hides her at his apartment while he tries to figure out how to help her. Next, her husband calls Spenser in a panic because the loan shark he borrowed the money from wants to muscle in on his real estate dealings, and he can’t square things without losing all of his investment or going to jail or both. Spenser cooks up a hare-brained scheme to trap King Powers and the feminists in an illegal weapons deal, using the bank robbery money, and figuring that he can solve two problems at once. He enlists the help of the New Bedford Police to oversee the operation, in exchange for keeping the Shepards out of it. Any idiot could tell that was never going to work, and not just people who read a lot of detective stories. Miraculously, it does actually work, the bad guys (and gals) get nabbed, the bank money is recovered, no one gets hurt, and Pam goes back to her husband. Unfortunately, King Powers is out on bail later, and brings his henchmen to the Shepards and roughs them up. When Spenser shows up, there’s the usual melee, and for a while it appears that Powers has him seriously outnumbered, if not out-strategized. But because Spenser warned Hawk out of the gun deal trap, Hawk won’t kill Spenser when Powers tells him to. The other henchmen flee, and Spenser roughs up Powers a bit so he leaves the Shepards alone. This is a really lively and engaging story in this series, and being so early of the group, it seems dewy fresh and uncluttered. His relationship with Susan is young and full of promise, and this book basically introduces Hawk as his equal and counterpart. Because of the times, the story suffers from some rather dated psycho-babble about sexism, racism, rights, stereotypes, morality, equality and self-actualization. But Parker is too good a writer to get bogged down in trivialities, and for the most part, the story charges along at a good clip and doesn’t lag. Interesting and entertaining throughout, and well-written as they all are in a punchy and informal style.


The Queen of Hearts
Michelle Martin
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Ballantine Books
1994



The elder Lord Cartwright kills himself, leaving his wife and family in financial ruin, and bequeathing the dower house on their property to Lady Samantha Adamson, the daughter of his old flame. This free-spirited young lady, now orphaned, arrives from abroad with her two young wards to live in the house, throwing the Cartwrights into a spin. This is especially true of Simon, the new Lord Cartwright, whose father’s death dropped the responsibility of the family onto his young shoulders. Since Simon has necessarily become suddenly serious and severe, he finds Samantha wild, uncivilized and downright radical. Meanwhile, she finds him arrogant and patronizing. Since she lives on their property, he feels obligated to prevent her from scandalizing polite society. He alternately thwarts and rescues her from a string of misadventures and she is alternately furious or grateful. There are many wonderful and picaresque characters and sub-plots – not too many, but just enough to keep things interesting. In the end, her ward Christina marries Simon’s younger brother, his mother elopes with one of Samantha’s oldest friends (they also find a better match for Simon’s stuffy fiancee) and of course Simon and Samantha get together after all. Well-written in a lively, engaging style, it makes you want to spend more time with these people.


The Rake’s Mistake
Gail Eastwood
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Signet / New American Library, Div. Penguin Putnam
2002



Archer Drake, Lord Ramsdale, returns to London from being exiled to the West Indies by his family due to youthful indescretions. He becomes instantly enchanted by Lady Daphne Wetherell, a widow who is considered a notorious woman and shunned by society. While his mother and sisters attempt to make a suitable match for him, and his friend Peter Hollyfield tells scandalous tales about her, everything he hears only serves to make her all the more enticing. He discovers her step-son Robert has fallen in with a bad crowd, and he manages to lose to him at cards, giving him the opportunity to call on the Wetherells to settle his debts. Daphne is so relieved that he is not a creditor, or another odious Lord offering his “protection,” and they even discover a common interest in art. (Daphne and her late father both paint.) Since Archer is competing in a yacht race, he persuades Daphne to join him in a sail on the river for practice, and they wind up at his great-uncle’s estate for lunch, and she has such a lovely time that she can’t help being attracted to him, in spite of her best efforts. Because of their shared interest in maritime art, he shows her his collection, including his prized Dutch Master, which she spots at once as a copy. They return to her house to compare it with her late husband’s original, only to find her step-son has sold it to cover his gambling debts. She asks Archer to bring her to Lord Ainshaw’s, who bought the painting, so she can examine it there, although she recognizes the danger to his family’s standing if he socializes with her. When they go, Ainshaw is predictably rude to her, although a bigger problem is that painting turns out to be a copy also. They go to the art dealer who handled both transactions, a friend of her later father, and he seems eager to help, although Archer wonders if he might be in on it. He hires someone to investigate the background of the phony paintings transactions, and in case the crooks get any ideas, he hires a fellow just to watch over Daphne wherever she is. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help her when the gallery owner sets a trap for her and accuses her of snooping in his confidential files. But he leaps into action when a disgruntled former student of her father’s kills the gallery owner and spirits Daphne away on a fast boat bound for sea. When Archer gets word of what’s happened, he breaks up the most important race of the season by taking all the boats with him to rescue Daphne, which they do, but at the cost of Archers’ beloved Mist, which is destroyed in the effort. It turns out this disgruntled student blackmailed Daphne’s father into painting the phony pictures and then had him killed when he would do no more. When Daphne rebuffed his advances, he spread lies about her until she was shunned by society, even though none of it was true. In the end, even the dour Lady Ramsdale agrees to welcome Daphne as her son’s bride, and it all ends very happily. Well-written and interesting throughout, although way over-plotted for a Regency romance, and a bit too verbose and melodramatic to be really entertaining. But the characters are likable for the most part, and the descriptive passages are interesting and evocative. A little too tense for a real romance, and not overly romantic, but good enough of this type.


Return to Thrush Green
Miss Read
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Michael Joseph
1978



This is one in a series of sweet and gentle books set in the English countryside. This is rather a compendium of inter-related anecdotes about the residents, such as the doctor, church sexton, merchants and others. Among the tales told is about city dwellers who summer in the village, then move there permanently. The characters are all finely drawn but with more kindness than cunning. The stories are all charming and are woven together effortlessly into a pleasing whole. Although there are many comings and goings, and a lot of situations being changed around, everything has a happy ending, and things seem to work out for the best after all.


Ride With Me
Thomas B. Costain
Historical Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Doubleday & Company
1944



This author is famous for weaving a fictional story through actual historical events to very entertaining effect. Here in the early 1800s, we meet the Ellery family in London, owners of the newspaper The Tablet. Oldest son Francis longed for a great military career, but a childhood accident that left him with a limp dashed those hopes. His brother Carradoc has political ambitions, and is maneuvering for an advantageous marriage that will bring him the money and influence he craves. (The widowed Mrs. Ellery favors him over the others, which causes some tensions among the family.) Youngest son Humphrey is with a regiment in India, while Napoleon Bonaparte is making hay throughout the continent. Francis meets a group of French emigres from the aristocracy living in shabby gentility as exiles in London, and he falls hard for Gabrielle de Salle, although he realizes she is way out of his social circle. Then he meets Robert Wilson, notorious Soldier of Fortune, who warns him of the danger of invasion by the French. Francis makes a deal with his mother and brother to give up certain properties they want, to attract a suitable heiress, in exchange for their voting rights on the newspaper, so he can use The Tablet as a platform to educate the public about the threat. This works only too well, as merchants pull their ads, the government refuses them access to foreign news, and finally the King has him tossed in prison. It’s only the personal savings of his favorite Aunt Francie that keeps the paper afloat when everyone else deserts them. At the same time, Francis finds out that Carradoc is dallying with his beloved Gabrielle, which is an even more bitter pill to swallow. When Bonaparte invades Spain, Robert Wilson goes there with a regiment of irregulars. Francis (now calling himself Frank) tags along to avoid a summons (his mother and brother’s attempt to oust him from editorial control of the newspaper) and files dispatches with all the details, thus inventing the war correspondent. This innovation almost immediately turns around the fortunes of The Tablet, as news of the exploits from the peninsula is eagerly snapped up in London. Robert Wilson cooks up a scheme to create a mock military camp on a hill, headed by Frank and some English refugees. This has the desired effect of convincing the French General in the area that there is a larger British military presence than actual, and prevents him from attacking Wilson’s true positions. This works so well that the French Army stays bottled up until the British can send the rest of their forces and save the day in the peninsula. When Frank returns to London, he is elated to find The Tablet doing better than ever, but he is dashed to discover his beloved Gabrielle engaged to his brother Carradoc. When her brother is implicated in a spy scandal, Frank must work fast to spirit her out of the country. His brother drops her like a hot potato, fearful that the scandal will hurt his career, and settles down instead with a more suitable neighborhood heiress. Later, Frank is despondent to learn that Gabrielle has married another of the French exiles who returned to Paris, and then moved to Russia with the diplomatic corps. When Napoleon declares war on Russia instead, Frank hurries to Russia to make sure that she gets out safely. She refuses to leave, believing that she will be safer when Napoleon defeats the Russians. He doesn’t, of course, and as the dreaded Russian winter closes in, she is left behind to starve or be killed by the Russians. He rescues her in the nick of time, and they ride out the storm in an abandoned villa that was ransacked by the French Army, but provided at least rudimentary shelter and broken furniture for firewood. Under these inauspicious circumstances, they become intimate, and while Frank sees this as a significant turning point in their relationship, Gabrielle is more resistant to that idea. When they finally reach Poland, Frank is distraught to learn of Gabrielle’s plans to return to Napoleon’s court in Paris, and he sails back to England in a dejected mood. Then Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo, and the French monarchy is restored, so once again Gabrielle and her fellow Bonapartists find themselves in peril. Meanwhile, Gabrielle’s mousy cousin Margot has blossomed into a great beauty, and because she never affiliated herself with Napoleon’s cause, when the monarchy is restored, she inherited her parents’ vast estates. All Paris is at her feet, and even Frank is attracted to her, in spite of himself. Gabrielle, who had gone into hiding, re-appears when her husband and other Bonapartists are killed by the new regime, and publicly insults King Louis XVIII, bringing Frank and also Robert Wilson to her rescue from the angry mobs. When they arrange the escape of a condemned compatriot from prison, it becomes dangerous for all of them to remain in Paris. Wilson arranges for Frank and Gabrielle to leave the country secretly, which they do, and they even decide to elope as long as their luck is holding up. Unfortunately, the rest of the conspirators do not fare as well, and find themselves imprisoned by a vengeful monarchy. Fortunately they are released after a few months, and the book pretty much ends right there. It’s a good book, well-written and lively throughout, and just brimming (maybe too brimming) with interesting historical facts. The author is a good writer and has written many worthwhile books. I found this one did not hold together so well, as a combination of heroic military adventure, old-fashioned romance and history textbook. It wavered along an uneasy line between the three, sometimes with flashes of excitement, sometimes overly melodramatic, and other times dry and boring. The ending was too precipitous to be really satisfying, as these stories often are when they’re trying to do too much at once, and don’t really know where they’re going. But it was entertaining nonetheless, with characters that were genuine, and if not exactly likable, at least bearable.


Rose In Bloom
Louisa M. Alcott
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Orchard House Edition / Little, Brown & Company
1876



This is a sequel to “Eight Cousins” and begins with Rose and her Uncle Alec and Phebe returning home after some years abroad. The cousins have all grown up into young men and young ladies, instead of the gadabout youngsters they once were, and that makes it a little awkward at first. Rose returns with the same kindly disposition, but strong-minded and determined to be independent, to the amusement of her cousins, who are used to young ladies being more traditional. This irks cousin Charlie who had decided to be Rose’s match, although growing up without proper guidance has made him rather head-strong and idle. Another disappointment to the forthright Rose is discovering the duplicitousness of people who pretend to be her friends, since she has come into her parent’s fortune. The family thinks a safe match for Rose would be the steadfast Archie, although unbeknownst to all, he has developed a tendre for Phebe, who has blossomed into a fine young woman under Uncle Alec’s care. Rose begins to chafe under Charlie’s presumptuousness of their pairing, and in retaliation, presses into service as an escort her awkward cousin Mac, the bookworm, who is more earnest than accomplished, and who creates no end of social faux pas for the family to chortle over. A family crisis ensues when Archie proposes to Phebe, and although she tuns him down, the family is turned all topsy-turvy. Phebe sets off to make her name as a singer, leaving Rose without her dearest friend in the world, and poor Archie inconsolable. Then Rose finally hands Charlie his hat and he is much chastened by her rebuke. Like the first one, this book also spends pages moaning over bad literature, fast living by young men and ridiculous vanities of young ladies, as if complaining about it would have any effect on it. Next, cousin Steve proposes to Kitty, a nice girl from a good family and everyone rejoices. Although they seem a little immature and frivolous, especially compared to the earnest Rose and down-to-earth Archie, they’re both good-hearted youngsters and determined to be a credit to their families. Although Charlie tries his best to mend his profligate ways for Rose’s sake, he is not up to the task and in a tragic accident, the author manages to kill off cousin Charlie and his horse all in one stroke. Next, cousin Mac promises a dying woman to care for her infant, to the horror of his parents, but fortunately the resourceful Rose takes the baby under her wing, to the improvement of both. This selfless gesture so touches the sensitive Mac that he blurts out his previously unexpressed deep and abiding love for her. Rose is completely taken aback with surprise and wonder, and insists that he go away and study, thinking that like Archie and Phebe, time and distance will prove if the love is constant and true. (It is in the latter’s case, as they have continued to communicate during their separation.) Then Uncle Alec travels to visit Phebe and while there falls desperately ill with only Phebe to care for him at the risk of her own life. When he recovers at last, the family is ready to welcome her back with open arms. It all ends very nicely with the three happy couples planning their futures. Compared to the first book, which was sweetly sentimental and full of simple pleasures, this story brims with youthful angst, melodrama and tragedy. It leave an unpleasant aftertaste of disillusionment, dashed hopes and lowered expectations. It is still very well-written and the characters are genuine and finely drawn, although with warts and all. But the overall effect is dreary and demoralizing, in spite of the author’s best efforts to paint a pretty face on it. If there was a third book in this series, this story wouldn’t encourage anyone to want to read it.

Rum & Razors
Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Signet / Penguin Group
1995



This is another in a series of books based on the hit TV show “Murder, She Wrote” featuring mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher. In this story, Jessica finishes her latest book and then heads to St. Thomas for some vacation time away from the horrible winter weather at home in Cabot Cove, Maine. Two expatriates from her home town, Laurie and Walter Marschalk, have opened an upscale resort on the lagoon and invite her to stay. However, all is not perfect in paradise – the large resort behind theirs lost their water access when they opened, so there was always bad blood there. The other resort accused them of bribing local officials and killing a local land-owner in order to buy the property, and they vowed to put them out of business. Then Walter’s body is discovered in the lagoon with his throat slit. It’s very easy for Jessica to discover that Walter was almost universally despised, and so there is no lack of suspects, including the ubiquitous disgruntled former employee. The police arrest the former employee, but Jessica is convinced that he is innocent. She also discovers that Walter had many girlfriends, and in a particularly grisly case of horribly bad timing, a process server delivers divorce papers after he’s dead. Laurie admits to Jessica that she was aware of Walter’s infidelity, but even Jessica is surprised when Laurie and the owner of the competing resort announce a merger, not 48 hours after Walter’s death. Then Jessica stumbles on Laurie and ex-Senator Bobby Jensen in a clinch – he was reportedly the official who accepted bribes to facilitate their purchase of the property. Jessica is able to help Jacob, the arrested employee, remember that his phone call to Dr. Silber should provide an alibi for him – so it comes as a big shock the next day when the police tell her that Jacob killed himself in his cell. Then Dr. Silber suddenly retires and moves to America. Jessica begins to comprehend that larger forces are at work here. She happens upon a gathering of Laurie, her business partner Chris Webb and two other people, Jennifer and Fred, who claimed to have written Walter’s travel books. She follows them to a dock where they meet Mark, the owner of the other resort, and some of them leave on a boat, even though there is a bad storm. Jessica hires a boat to follow them and so is able to rescue Jacob when they throw him overboard. Later, all of the bad guys drown when their boat capsizes. It turns out that Fred killed Walter in a fight over payment for his ghost-writing, and Mark and Senator Jensen pulled the strings to implicate Jacob, fake his suicide and then attempt to silence him permanently. Although these books are always entertaining and well-written, this one seems much more muddled and haphazard than usual. It has moments that are nothing but “filler” and other moments where the dialogue or motivations are completely incomprehensible. The characters are uniformly unlikable and the story gets hopelessly bogged down in its own labyrinths. It would be impossible for a book in this series to be really bad, but this one is certainly not up to their usual standards. Somewhat disappointing, especially the ending, which is inexplicable.

The Runaway Jury
John Grisham
Drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Bantam Doubleday Dell
1996


Another in a series of legal thrillers from this author, who is a former lawyer turned writer. His first book, “The Firm,” was one of the best books I’ve ever read. Since then, they’ve tended to be formulaic, melodramatic and implausible. This one has one of my favorite titles of all time. The story concerns a trial in Biloxi, Mississippi, of the widow of an ex-smoker who sued the tobacco company. Both sides regard this trial as a watershed – either discouraging further lawsuits against the industry, or opening the floodgates for such litigation, depending on the verdict. Consequently, both sides have spent millions of dollars on research, experts, jury analysts – and myriad other illegal, immoral and unsavory activities. Rankin Fitch is the orchestrator of the defense team, and he has all the money and ruthlessness to do whatever it takes to protect the industry. Nicholas Easter and his girlfriend Marlee (assumed names for both) arrange for Nicholas to get on the jury and then swing a deal with Fitch to influence the jury into returning the verdict desired. Fitch finds out too late that Marlee is really Gabrielle Brant and both of her parents died young of lung cancer. Their plan all along was to take the tobacco money and then double-cross Fitch and find for the plaintiff with large punitive damages. Their real intention was to use the $10,000,000 payoff making a killing in the stock market, short-selling tobacco stocks as the shares tumble after the verdict. They do this and then return the $10,000,000 to Fitch’s secret back account. So in the end, Marlee and Nicholas retire in luxury to Europe – but they were never more than ciphers throughout the book, and so you really can’t care what happens to them. Because they were supposed to be shadowy figures all along, they never became fleshed-out characters like Fitch, so their victory is hollow and irrelevant. Very well-written in a punchy and engaging style – it charges along breathlessly from the first page to the last. Grisham has a lot going for him, but he can’t seem to get all of his best elements to come together at the same time.