AUTHOR LIST

Marv Albert
I’d Love To But I Have A Game

Louisa May Alcott
Eight Cousins (or the Aunt-Hill)
Jo's Boys (And How They Turned Out)
Rose In Bloom

Therese Alderton
An Easter Bouquet

Tim Allen
I'm Not Really Here

Woody Allen
Side Effects

Dave Anderson
Hey, Wait a Minute (I Wrote a Book!)

Brian Antoni
Naked Came the Manatee

Mary Astor
A Life On Film

Donald Bain
A Deadly Judgment
A Palette For Murder
Brandy & Bullets
The Highland Fling Murders
The Maine Mutiny
Martinis and Mayhem
Murder in Moscow
Rum & Razors

Mary Balogh
Lady With A Black Umbrella
Lord Carew's Bride

Dave Barry
Dave Barry In Cyberspace
Dave Barry is from Mars and Venus
Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys
Naked Came the Manatee

Henry Beard
Latin For All Occasions

Jack Becklund
Summer With The Bears

Josephine Bell
Curtain Call For A Corpse

Robert Benchley
After 1903 -- What?

William J. Bennett
The Death of Outrage

Yogi Berra
The Yogi Book

Claudia Bishop
Murder Well-Done

George Blair
Split End

Lawrence Block
The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart

D.B. Borton
Two Points For Murder

Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Blew The Whistle
The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal
The Cat Who Played Brahms
The Cat Who Said Cheese
The Cat Who Wasn’t There
The Cat Who Went Into The Closet

Ann Bridge
A Place To Stand

Terry Brooks
The Tangle Box
Witches' Brew
Wizard At Large

Jan Harold Brunvand
The Choking Doberman (And Other "New" Urban Legends)

Edna Buchanan
Naked Came the Manatee

Gayle Buck
Mutual Consent

Jimmy Buffett
Tales From Margaritaville

Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sara Crewe

John Dickson Carr
Panic In Box C

Susan Carroll
Christmas Belles
The Lady Who Hated Shakespeare
Mistress Mischief

Barbara Cartland
A Halo for the Devil
Bewitched
Only A Dream
The Outrageous Lady

James Carville
... And The Horse He Rode In On

Terri Casey
Pride and Joy

Clara Cassidy
Up In Years (And Off My Rocker)

Mary Jane Chambers
Here Am I! Send Me

Loretta Chase
The English Witch

Marion Chesney
Those Endearing Young Charms

Agatha Christie
A Holiday For Murder
At Bertram's Hotel
The Body in the Library
Crooked House
Death In The Clouds
4:50 From Paddington
Funerals Are Fatal
The Man in the Brown Suit
Murder With Mirrors
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
N Or M?
Ordeal By Innocence
The Pale Horse
Partners in Crime
Sad Cypress
The Seven Dials Mystery
Sleeping Murder
There Is A Tide
Thirteen At Dinner
Towards Zero

Charles M. Cooper
The Old Testament For Us

Thomas B. Costain
Ride With Me

Hamilton Crane
Miss Seeton Rocks the Cradle

Trella Crespi
The Trouble With A Small Raise

Michael Crichton
Jurassic Park

Anne Crone
This Pleasant Lea

Clive Cussler
Deep Six

Don Davenport
Fire & Ice

Lester David
Ethel

Frank Deford
Cut 'N' Run

Nelson DeMille
Plum Island
Spencerville

Michael Dibdin
Dirty Tricks

Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Old Curiosity Shop

Dorothea Donley
The Beaux of Bayley Dell

Carole Nelson Douglas
Cat in a Crimson Haze
Cat on a Blue Monday
Catnap

Tananarive Due
Naked Came the Manatee

John Dufresne
Naked Came the Manatee

Jane Duncan
My Friends From Cairnton
My Friends George and Tom
My Friends, The Hungry Generation

Carola Dunn
Toblethorpe Manor

Gail Eastwood
The Rake's Mistake

Margaret Echard
Born in Wedlock

Morris Feinberg
Larry, The Stooge In The Middle

David Feldman
How Does Aspirin Find A Headache?

Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair
Lost In A Good Book

Jessica Fletcher
A Deadly Judgment
A Palette For Murder
Brandy & Bullets
The Highland Fling Murders
The Maine Mutiny
Martinis and Mayhem
Murder in Moscow
Rum & Razors

Frederick Forsyth
The Fist of God

Dick Francis
To The Hilt

Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Drowning Duck
The Case of the Lucky Legs

Kelsey Grammer
So Far

Ann Granger
A Season For Murder

John Gray
How To Get What You Want and Want What You Have
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

John Grisham
A Time To Kill
The Client
The Firm
The Partner
The Pelican Brief
Runaway Jury

Jane Haddam
Feast of Murder

James W. Hall
Naked Came the Manatee

Barbara Hazard
Thursday’s Child

Vicki Hendricks
Naked Came the Manatee

Emily Hendrickson
Lord Dancy's Delight

Mrs. Robert Henrey
Mistress of Myself

Carl Hiaasen
Naked Came the Manatee

Grace Livingston Hill
According To The Pattern

Cindy Holbrook
A Suitable Connection

Tom Holt
Flying Dutch

Carolina Hospital
Naked Came the Manatee

John Irving
The World According To Garp

Benjamin Jacobsen
Oh Sir, You've Shot Her!

John Jakes
The Americans
The Lawless
North and South

P.D. James
Unnatural Causes

Dan Jenkins
You Gotta Play Hurt

Emma Jensen
Vivid Notions

Margaret Jensen
First We Have Coffee
Lena
Violets For Mr. B

Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Who Moved My Cheese?

Alan Judd
Tango

Jeanette Kamins
A Husband Isn't Everything

Stuart M. Kaminsky
He Done Her Wrong

Garson Kanin
Tracy and Hepburn

James Kaplan
Dean and Me

Elizabeth Kata
A Patch of Blue

Harry Kemelman
One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry
That Day the Rabbi Left Town

Alexander Kent
A Tradition of Victory
Band of Brothers
In Gallant Company
Midshipman Bolitho
Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger
Sloop of War
Stand Into Danger
To Glory We Steer

April Kihlstrom
The Counterfeit Betrothal

Emily Kimbrough
Floating Island
Forever Old, Forever New
Forty Plus and Fancy Free
Our Hearts Were Young & Gay
So Near and Yet So Far
Through Charley's Door

Gordon Korman
The Chicken Doesn't Skate

William Kotzwinkle
Christmas At Fontaine's

M.D. Lake
A Gift for Murder
Flirting With Death

Harold A. Larrabee
Decision at the Chesapeake

Gaylord Larsen
Dorothy and Agatha

Elmore Leonard
Naked Came the Manatee

Paul Levine
Naked Came the Manatee

Jerry Lewis
Dean and Me

Dawn Lindsey
The Nabob's Daughter

Jeremy Lloyd
The "Are You Being Served" Stories

Norah Lofts
Silver Nutmeg

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Kavanagh

Betty MacDonald
The Plague and I

Charlotte Macleod
An Owl Too Many

John Madden
Hey, Wait a Minute (I Wrote a Book!)

Howard Manly
Lift Every Voice

Elizabeth Mansfield
Winter Wonderland

Garry Marshall
Wake Me When It's Funny

Janet Letnes Martin
Growing Up Lutheran

Kat Martin
Fanning The Flame

Michelle Martin
The Queen of Hearts

Evelyn Mayerson
Naked Came the Manatee

Tim McCarver
Baseball For Brain Surgeons and Other Fans

Sharyn McCrumb
Highland Laddie Gone
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
Lovely In Her Bones
MacPherson’s Lament
Missing Susan
Sick of Shadows
The Windsor Knot

Carson McCullers
Member of the Wedding

Bernice McGeehan
Wunnerful, Wunnerful!

Dixie Lee McKeone
Sweet Doro

Barry Meisel
Losing The Edge

Barbara Metzger
Christmas Wishes

Gwyneth Moore
Love’s Lady Lost

Suzann (Johnson) Nelson
Growing Up Lutheran

Holly Newman
Gentleman's Trade

Joan Overfield
A Matchmaking Miss

Robert B. Parker
A Catskill Eagle
Ceremony
Double Deuce
Early Autumn
God Save The Child
The Godwulf Manuscript
The Judas Goat
Looking for Rachel Wallace
Love and Glory
Pale Kings And Princes
Paper Doll
Pastime
Promised Land
Stardust
Taming A Sea Horse
Thin Air
Valediction
The Widening Gyre

Frances Gray Patton
Good Morning, Miss Dove

Danny Peary
Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans

George Plimpton
Paper Lion

John Prebble
The Lion In The North

Ellery Queen
The Penthouse Mystery

Lawrence J. Quirk
Fasten Your Seat Belts

Gilda Radner
It's Always Something

Debbie Raleigh
The Christmas Wish

Miss Read
Emily Davis
The Fairacre Festival
Miss Clare Remembers
No Holly for Miss Quinn
Over The Gate
Return To Thrush Green
Tales From A Village School
Winter In Thrush Green

Carl Reiner
My Anecdotal Life

Scott Rice
It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
Soldier of Orange

Elliott Roosevelt
Murder In The Oval Office

Dana Fuller Ross
Illinois!

Irene Saunders
The Contentious Countess

Dick Schaap
Sport

Sidney Sheldon
The Other Side of Midnight

Ernest H. Shepard
Drawn From Memory

Louisa R. Shotwell
Adam Bookout

Gene Simmons
KISS and Make Up

Cornelia Otis Skinner
Our Hearts Were Young & Gay

Joan Smith
The Great Christmas Ball

Adela Rogers St. Johns
Some Are Born Great

Judith Stafford
Sarah's Angel

Les Standiford
Naked Came the Manatee

D.E. Stevenson
Green Money
Music in the Hills
Smouldering Fire
The Young Clementina

Mary Stewart
The Moon-Spinners

T.L. Tedrow
Missouri Homestead

Josephine Tey
Brat Farrar
The Daughter of Time

Leonard Tourney
The Bartholomew Fair Murders

Thomas Tryon
Crowned Heads

Dr. Walter Turnbull
Lift Every Voice

Mark Twain
A Tramp Abroad

Robert Vaughan
Dawn of the Century
Hard Times
The Lost Generation

Lawrence Welk
Wunnerful, Wunnerful!

Robert W. Wells
Fire & Ice

Morris West
The Shoes of the Fisherman

Jan Westcott
Captain Barney

Gustav K. Wiencke
The Old Testament For Us

P.G. Wodehouse
The Code of the Woosters

Tom Wolfe
The Bonfire of the Vanities

Stuart Woods
Orchid Beach
Under The Lake

Herman Wouk
Inside, Outside
This Is My God

Lady Word enLightening The World

TITLES X - Y - Z

The Yogi Book
I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said
Yogi Berra
Humor
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Workman Publishing
1998



Yogi Berra, beloved catcher of the New York Yankees on their world championship teams from the late 1940s to the 1960s, plus former manager of both the Yankees and New York Mets, is perhaps best known for his inadvertent witticisms. He is famous for the sayings, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” and “90% of the game is half mental” as well as myriad other miscues that have been attributed to him that he never actually said. This book is more of a joke-and-picture book, instead of a regular book, but it is still entertaining in its own way. The pictures, and text that goes along with the pictures, are interesting, amusing and nostalgic. This is a small, fun and light-hearted book by a sports icon who is universally adored and revered by fans, family, teammates and celebrities worldwide. It has a lot of fun baseball stories, plus cute family memories. My favorites of his sayings are, “The future ain’t what it used to be” and “We’re lost, but we’re making good time.” At the end of the book are more “Yogi-isms” that were actually said by his wife, children or grandchildren instead, and my favorites of those are “I double-checked it six times” and “I knew exactly where it was, I just couldn’t find it.” Written in a lively, informal style, this short book leaves you wanting much more. A very fun, happy little book.


You Gotta Play Hurt
Dan Jenkins
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Simon & Schuster
1991



Jim Tom Pinch is a sportswriter with “The Sports Magazine.” The magazine sends him and other staffers to cover the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. The book is written vignette-style with short, punchy chapters. Along the way, we are introduced to the colorful characters in Jim Tom’s world, including his colleagues at the magazine, the Chief Editor, the horrible publisher, other sportswriters, athletes and managers, venue staff, his three ex-wives and his no-account son, who appears to be a professional student. Although many of the characters are unlikable, they’re all highly entertaining and the pace never lags. After the Olympics, it’s off to the Final Four and one of the funniest skewerings of college basketball and the people involved in it. Next up is The Masters, with its own amusing anecdotes. There are also occasional chapters interspersed as letters to his book publisher, about the progress of the book as it’s being written, which creates a very humorous book-within-a-book sub-plot. Somewhere between The Masters and the Indy 500, Jim Tom discovers there are two women in love with him: Long-time editor and co-worker sensible Nell Woodruff, and Jeannie Slay, a young and bouncy sportswriter with the L.A. Times. Jim Tom angles for a big promotion for Nell, and she seems to have the inside track, but then he covers the U.S. (golf) Open with Jeannie, for the most part fending off her advances. It gets more complicated when all of them converge at Wimbledon, that bastion of tradition that comes in for some ferocious ribbing. Also amusing are Jim Tom’s efforts to procure “friendly companions” (hookers) for the magazine’s big advertisers, a job that he hates, but for which the delighted magazine big-wigs reward him richly. It’s at Wimbledon that Jim Tom finds out the “coziness” between the big-wigs and the advertisers involves a lot of dubious insider trading and stock manipulation shenanigans. When everyone arrives in Paris for the Summer Olympics, Jim Tom is under pressure to finally make a choice between Nell and Jeannie. He chooses Nell and lets Jeannie down gently – she decides to accept an offer from CBS-TV Sports and give up her column. The next big hullabaloo is when the horrible publisher is fired by the magazine ownership, after he and another executive (who died) were discovered engaging in bizarre and sordid sexual practices. Everyone on the executive ladder moves up a notch and it looks like there’s a possibility of a big advancement for Nell, except for the useless and incompetent (but very well-connected) deadwood in her way. In the end, Jim Tom’s alma mater, Texas Christian University, has a rip-roaring Cotton Bowl appearance, Nell gets the big job, and everyone ends up happy. This author also wrote “Semi-Tough,” a very entertaining sports novel and even a pretty good movie. Many years of writing for Sports Illustrated have given him a real insight into the business of journalism, sports and the people involved with it. It starts out better than it ends up, sort of running out of steam midway, and it turns out more linear than well-rounded. But it is extremely well-written and entertaining throughout, and it seems almost too real to be fictional.

The Young Clementina
D.E. Stevenson
Drama
Fiction
Rating 5
Holt, Rinehart & Winston
1938



Charlotte Dean and her sister Kitty grew up at the parsonage in Hinkleton Manor and although Charlotte had an understanding with Garth Wisdon, the heir to the title, he unexpectedly married her sister. Things went horribly wrong and after they were divorced, Kitty died unexpectedly. Garth asked Charlotte to oversee the Manor and his daughter Clementina while he went on safari to get away from bad memories at home. Their relationship, rocky at first, became smooth and finally warm. They received the news that Garth had been killed abroad and Charlotte was instructed to write his memoirs from his diaries. This is how she found out what really happened with their “misunderstood understanding” and why he married her sister, which she felt wistful about, now that it was too late to mend the break between them. But it turned out he wasn’t killed and everything ended up wonderfully. A very sweet and sentimental story without being cloying. An unexpected pleasure.

TITLES U - V - W

Under The Lake
Stuart Woods
Suspense
Fiction
Rating 4
Simon & Schuster
1987



A change of pace for this author, the story is a sort of Gothic horror tale set in a sleepy Southern town. John Howell is a blocked writer in a dull marriage who gets a chance to ghost-write the biography of an embarrassingly famous self-made man. He moves to a cabin in the woods so he can work without interruptions. Bizarre things begin happening at once. He gets involved with a newspaperwoman undercover in the town doing an expose on the sheriff. Everything revolves around the valley families who were flooded out with the new dam. The supernatural ending is surprising and satisfying.


Unnatural Causes
P.D. James
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Charles Scribners Sons
1967



The body of writer Maurice Seton washes ashore on the Suffolk coast, where he lived in a cottage in a small community. Scotland Yard Inspector Adam Dalgliesh is in the area on vacation visiting with his aunt. The local Supt. Reckless investigates, dragging Dalgliesh along in his wake. Next, the deceased’s half-brother and heir turns up murdered. It turns out to be an elaborate plot by Seton’s crippled and bitter typist and Gal Friday, Sylvia Kedge, and his half-brother to get at his inheritance before he had a chance to change his will. Sylvia killed her accomplice to get all of the money for herself, and then she was killed mostly by accident during a roof-top rescue attempt in a bad storm. A bit pedantic for this genre, but meticulously written with sharp characterizations, and interesting throughout.


Up In Years (And Off My Rocker)
Clara Cassidy
Essay
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Self-Published by Clara McGrew Cassidy
1974



This is a tiny (40 pages) but delightful gem of a book, a perfect example of the saying “good things come in small packages.” The writer, in her 70s, retired from her job and puttered around the house for a few years. Then she began writing a weekly column called “Up In Years” for the local newspaper and her retirement took on a whole new character. This book is made up of short and peppy essays on a wide range of topics such as “Balanced Lives,” “A Rainy Day List,” “Put Your Timer To Work” and “Chase Away That Blue Mood.” All of the essays are clever and insightful, full of warmth, humor and good common sense. The writing is upbeat without being sappy, and offers practical advice in a kindly way that is easy to take. You feel this is a close friend or trusted advisor, someone you can turn to with questions or problems. She doesn’t sugar-coat the problems with aging, but she views them objectively and without bitterness or self-pity. A very uplifting and entertaining little treasure, and the author is to be commended for her keen observations, sprightly humor and positive outlook. Leaves you begging for more.



Valediction
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Delacorte Press
1984



Another in a series of books by this author featuring hard-boiled Private Investigator Spenser from Boston, this is a very strange story for a Spenser book and reminiscent of “Early Autumn” which was more a relationship book than crime drama. The first thing that happens in this story is that his girlfriend Susan Silverman gets her doctorate from Harvard and promptly leaves town to accept a job in San Francisco. (The book after this that continues Susan’s California adventures is “A Catskill Eagle.”) This throws Spenser into a spin that lasts the whole book. Susan sends Paul Giacomin to stay with Spenser and watch over him – everyone he knows (Hawk, Martin Quirk, Joe Broz, Vinnie Morris, Henry Cimoli, etc, etc.) asks him how he’s doing since Susan left. The manager of the dance group that Paul belongs to asks Spenser to find his girlfriend Sherry who has been kidnaped by a religious cult. Spenser goes to their headquarters and roughs them up and they produce Sherry, but she doesn’t want to leave. He has nothing else to do, so he looks a little deeper into the church’s finances and finds ties to a crooked construction company. It appears that the church is laundering money for the crooks. The church’s leader admits to the ruse and is set to testify against them. Then the construction boss is murdered and things begin to look a little different. It turns out that Sherry and the church leader were selling drugs through their various branches and using the construction company as a smokescreen. In a weird, disjointed denouement, the dance manager and church leader kill each other and Sherry shoots Spenser before she is killed. Hawk brings Spenser to the hospital with bullet wounds in the chest and requires 15 hours of surgery before he is out of the woods. A real departure for Spenser books – murky, depressing and uncharacteristically aimless. Even more depressing reading, because you already know that Susan doesn’t come back at the end.


Violets For Mr. B
Margaret Jensen
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Here’s Life Books
1988



By the author of “First We Have Coffee,” and other similar works, this book relates the early years of the author’s nursing studies and internship in area hospitals. Told in an easy conversational style, the vignettes are alternately funny, sad, poignant or surprising. The author’s strong faith and sense of family make her books more like visiting with a favorite friend.


Vivid Notions
Emma Jensen
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Fawcett Crest / Ballantine Books
1996



American heiress Vivian Redmond is sent to visit relatives in England to enjoy a season in London. She finds that there is circulating at that time a series of poems of unknown origin (but presumably Byron) describing the almost indescribably perfect ideal of a woman – and it seems to describe Vivian exactly. This sets London its ear and gives Vivian no end of unwanted attention by curiosity seekers. Another distant relative who keeps after her is Noel, the noted playboy, Lord St. Helier, who is smitten with her spiritedness. She of course finds him odious in the extreme. There follows a lot of activity, outings and dances and costume balls and whatnot, plus trying to uncover the identity of the unknown poet (it turns out to be Byron’s niece or something in a totally incomprehensible sub-plot) and of course, it ends happily. Well-written in a jaunty, informal style.


Wake Me When It’s Funny
Garry Marshall
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Adams Media
1995


Writer, TV producer and movie director Garry Marshall has written a lively and funny book about his life. From humble beginnings in the Bronx, through early days writing for stand-up comics, then on to his successful TV career and hit movies, his story is consistently interesting and engaging. Loaded with anecdotes, advice and laughs, a very satisfying and extremely entertaining book.


Who Moved My Cheese?
Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Self-Help
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
G.P. Putnam’s Sons / Penguin Putnam
1998



Dr. Johnson is a famous motivational speaker and author of other books, such as “The One Minute Manager” (with Kenneth Blanchard), “The Precious Present,” “Yes or No,” plus a series of books for young people that highlight a particular virtue using a biography of a historical figure. This short book (under 100 pages) is nothing but a fleshed-out anecdote from a motivational seminar about dealing with change. It’s a very entertaining story about four characters (Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw) who travel around in a maze looking for cheese. (Here, the cheese is a metaphor for anything in your business or personal life that makes you happy.) They find a wonderful large stash of cheese and settle in to enjoy it. After a while, they become accustomed to having this cheese in this spot, and feel it should always be there and they are entitled to it. So when one day, they arrive and discover the cheese is all gone, it comes as a very unpleasant surprise. Sniff and Scurry go charging off, back into the maze to find more cheese. But Hem and Haw instead become angry, depressed and incapable of making any adjustments. They keep staying in the same place and doing the same things and just expect the cheese to return because they want it to. They have become immobilized by their fears – fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of trying something new. Finally, Haw realizes he has no other alternatives, so he goes back out into the maze looking for new cheese. It’s not easy, and he feels frightened, discouraged and inept. But after a while, he gains confidence as he draws on reserves of strength he didn’t know he had, and begins to embrace the concept of change, and it give him a sense of mastery over circumstances, and puts him in charge of his own destiny. He writes sayings on the walls (like “Old beliefs do no lead you to new cheese” and “When you move beyond your fear, you feel free”) to help anyone who follows him. The books makes a lot of valid points in an entertaining and painless way. It suffers from having the cheese story surrounded by an opening and closing section of a group of young people discussing their lives and careers, and how change affects them. This kind of literary conceit almost always falls flat, since the characters are ciphers, and the dialogue is awkward, forced and totally unbelievable. This book has a lot to recommend it, and professional people rave about it. But it’s amazing to me that they can charge $20 for a book that is basically a shaggy-dog story and not much else.


The Widening Gyre
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Delacorte Press
1983



Senatorial candidate Meade Alexander has gotten some death threats during his campaign, so he hires Boston Private Investigator Spenser to provide security. The candidate, who is a fundamentalist Christian, discovers that his enemies have a compromising videotape of his wife, who also has a drinking problem. The opposition candidate is in the pocket of local gangsters Joe Broz and Vinnie Morris from previous books. It turns out that Joe’s son Gerry is running organized orgies among college students and bored housewives, making videotapes as a kind of insurance. After Joe Broz loses two hit-men trying to kill Spenser, he makes a deal with him instead that protects the candidate’s reputation. Also showing up in this book are Paul Giacomin and Detective Martin Quirk. These books are always well-written and consistent within the entire series.


The Windsor Knot
Sharyn McCrumb
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Ballantine / Random House
1990


Forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson is working on her doctoral thesis in Virginia, when her fiancé Cameron Dawson in Scotland is invited to the annual Garden Party with the Queen (along with thousands of others.) When Elizabeth finds out that she can’t go because they are not married, she insists on assembling a lavish wedding before the party. While she is running around pulling this all together, a local widow gets the startling news that her husband has died in California – five years after she was originally notified of his death. This begins a merry chase through other mysterious disappearances and shady circumstances. These books are always jolly and entertaining, unhindered by dense plots.


Winter in Thrush Green
Miss Read
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Houghton Mifflin
1962



Another in this series by this author concerning life in a small English village. Charming and idyllic without being sappy, the characters are drawn in a kindly light, warts and all notwithstanding. When retired businessman Harold Shoosmith buys a vacant cottage on the Green, the village is set on its ear, and he finds himself drawn into the myriad committees, drives and doings of a small town. It is in this book that Albert Piggott (the Sexton) and Nelly Tilling get married; also the widowed Vicar Charles Henstock and spinster Dimity Dean decide to take the plunge. Dr. and Mrs. Lovell have a baby girl, and the shady Sam Curdle (of the Curdle May Day Fair) is arrested for burglary. A large part of the book is taken up with efforts to erect a memorial to Nathaniel Patten – a Thrush Green native famous for his missionary work in Africa – on the centennial of his birth. In the end, they commission a nice bronze statue of him to be installed on the Green, and everyone seems happy with it, especially Harold Shoosmith, who particularly revered him. Typically enjoyable, as all these books are, and told in a lively, informal style. The characters are genuine and engaging, and the descriptive passages are uniformly interesting. A wonderfully entertaining and sentimental look at village life that charms like a bright and cheerful fire on a cold night.


Winter Wonderland
Elizabeth Mansfield
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Jove Books / Berkley Publishing
1993



At his very first ball, young Barnaby Traherne makes the mistake of getting out of his depth with Miranda Pardew, who is the Incomparable of the season. She neatly puts him in his place, humiliating him in front of everyone. He escapes into the military. She marries Lord Velacott, who mistreats her, makes her miserable, and then is killed, leaving her penniless. When she is thrown out of the family house by her brother-in-law, she accepts a position as governess to a family with young boys. Also staying there over the holidays is Barnaby, the boys’ uncle. The family attempts to match him up with the bland Olivia, but he has eyes only for Miranda. There is all manner of running about, ups and downs, even highwaymen and Olivia’s unsuspected boyfriend show up. But it all works out in the end. Well-written in a pleasant conversational style.


Witches’ Brew
Terry Brooks
Fantasy
Fiction
Rating 4
Del Rey / Ballantine Books
1995



This is the 5th in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, where Ben Holiday has become Landover’s King. In the 4th book (The Tangle Box), he and his wife Willow had a daughter, Mistaya. She is kidnaped by Nightshade, the witch, who is using her and her latent magic as a weapon to destroy the King. When Mistaya was kidnaped, Questor Thews and Abernathy from the castle were inadvertently transported to Earth, back to Elizabeth in Seattle from book #3. (Abernathy is also temporarily returned to being a human instead of a dog.) Fortunately, Questor uses the right magic to return them to Landover, just in time to protect the King from Mistaya giving him Nightshade’s poison. It’s a very entertaining read, as they all are, but an unsatisfying ending, as they kill off Kallendbor of Rhyndweir and send Nightshade to Earth as a crow. (Back to Seattle, which is turning into a kind of a weird place to visit.) Well-written and interesting throughout.


Wizard At Large
Terry Brooks
Fantasy
Fiction
Rating 4
Ballantine Books / Random House
1988



This is the 3rd in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series. Court Wizard Questor Thews promises that he can reverse the spell that turned Abernathy into a dog. Unfortunately, the spell went wrong and Abernathy the dog was sent to Earth, in exchange for a bottle with an evil Wizard. When Ben Holiday and Willow set out to find Abernathy in America, the evil Wizard escapes and creates havoc in Landover. This story is a real page-turner with action and suspense galore. When the Landover contingent is hauled into court (pretending to be dressed up for Halloween) and rescued from there by the dragon Strabo in a hail of magical pyrotechnics, it is a fantasy masterpiece.


The World According To Garp
John Irving
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster
1976



This seems to be not so much a novel as a random series of anecdotes meandering back and forth in time, tied to a very slender narrative. It is well-written and very entertaining, but in a very stream-of-consciousness style. If it were less entertaining, it would be irritatingly verbose, because it takes dozens of pages for the story to go anywhere. It begins with Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields, who was an independent thinker in a dull, socially prominent family in Boston. She becomes a nurse and lives alone – when she decides she would like to have a child, she uses a terminal patient in ICU to become pregnant. That man was Technical Sergeant Garp, whose fighter plan was shot down in France. When her son is born, she names him T.S. Garp. She takes a job as school nurse at the Steering School, an exclusive prep academy for boys. Because she is an employee there, her son can attend the school at no charge, so he does. He’s a fair student, and even becomes an accomplished wrestler, under the tutelage of Coach Holm. He also develops a “tendre” for the coach’s pretty daughter, Helen. When Garp graduates, his mother decides they should live as expatriates in Vienna – so they move into rented rooms and settle down to write. Jenny writes her autobiography, which is prominently mentioned throughout the story. Garp writes a short story, but it is not well received. They return to Boston to have Jenny’s book published. To everyone’s surprise, it becomes a runaway best-seller, and Jenny is lionized by the fledgling women’s movement. Garp marries Helen Holm, and they settle down with their two boys – she teaches English in school and Garp writes. His first book is popular, but his second is considered a disappointment. The middle of the novel bogs down seriously in the soap-opera-ish routine of the Garp’s married life – their infidelities, his writing problems, odd encounters with various losers, lunatics, and friends of their children. Then there is a car accident, and their younger son Walt is killed – the other three of them are so badly injured that they move into Jenny’s big house on the sea, and she cares for them during the year or so it takes them to recuperate. They have another child, a daughter named Jenny, and Garp writes another book. Written in the wake of personal tragedy, the book is raw and melodramatic – it is widely loved, and hated, for its shock value. At a political rally, there is a confrontation between feminists and right-wingers, and Jenny Fields is killed. Shortly after that, Helen’s father dies of a heart attack, so all of them move back to the campus of the Steering Academy where Garp coaches wrestling, since he has been unable to write. One day while he is out jogging, an unbalanced woman tries to rum him over with her car. After this brush with death, he becomes re-energized and re-focused on his writing for the first time in years. Then the youngest member of the prominent Steering family, whom Garp barely knew as a child, kills him in the wrestling room, in front of Helen and the entire wrestling team. She had somehow convinced herself that he, or perhaps all men, were responsible for her sister’s death in childbirth. After years under psychiatric care, she was released, even though she killed someone in front of numerous witnesses. This only reinforces the theme of the book about the futility of life. The epilogue of the book describes the unhappy lives and macabre deaths of the other characters in the story. Though never boring, the book is ultimately unsatisfying, pointless and nihilistic. Reminiscent in a lot of strange ways of “A Confederacy of Dunces” in terms of being odd, unlikable characters in a vaguely depressing story that goes nowhere and ends badly. Another possibility is that this is satire, which is always lost on me. Inconceivably, it was also made into a movie with Robin Williams.


Wunnerful, Wunnerful!
The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk & Bernice McGeehan
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Prentice-Hall
1971



It seemed that Lawrence Welk sprang full-blown into the world with his musical variety TV show in the 1950's. But actually, he had been performing since the 1920's, in a variety of incarnations. He was born on my birthday, March 11 in 1903. Both of his parents were from Alsace-Lorraine, and emigrated to North Dakota in the late 1800's – although they spoke only German, they were very devout Catholics, rather than Protestants. They had a large family and lived on a farm, working hard to survive. Although his parents wanted all of the boys to be farmers, Lawrence inherited his father’s love of music, and wanted to be a musician. His father bought him a $400 accordion, and Lawrence re-paid him by working on the farm until he would be 21, and turning over all the money he would make playing for parties and weddings in the nearby towns. At 21, he said goodbye to the farm and set out on his own. He went to Bismarck, the nearest big city, and played for parties and weddings, but didn’t make all that much money. He also did odd jobs in stores to make extra money. After a while, he hooked up with a drummer, and they began to travel around as a duo. Pretty soon, he has a small band playing small venues all over the Midwest. To say that they have their ups and downs is a wild understatement, as they enjoy times of amazing success, and suffer through periods of deep desperation. Along the way, Lawrence and his band (or rather, series of bands) hooked up with some keen operators, and he was able to learn a lot from their expertise. But many times, it was slow going, and he was tempted to give it all up. In 1931, he married Fern Renner, who was studying to be a doctor. She was always very supportive and followed him wherever the band played, even uprooting their three children when necessary. In the 1940's, when the Big Band era was at its peak, they landed a steady job as the house band at a ritzy hotel in Chicago, and stayed there 10 years. They got even more exposure by doing radio broadcasts from the hotel. Finally, they moved on to another long-standing job at a dance hall in California, where they were covered by the local TV station. They became an “overnight” sensation on TV, and soon they had their own national TV program sponsored by Dodge. The show runs for many years on network TV, and then in syndication. This book is uniformly interesting, and is well-written with a folksy charm and positive philosophy that makes you feel good all over. He writes as a person who feels truly blessed, never dwells on negative things, and always believes the best of people. The only unfortunate thing about the book is that he spends so very much time on his early life and budding career – including minute details of the towns, the shows, what the band was wearing – that the later period is given short shrift. When they relocate to California and begin appearing on local TV, through all the years of his successful network show, until he basically retires and “supervises” the program rather than doing everything himself, all of that is crammed into the last 20 pages of the book. After the whole long and involved description of events up to then, it really seems to fall off a table. The book ends just at that point when most people became aware of Lawrence Welk, and what’s missing are the same kinds of reminiscences and anecdotes from the TV show that there were from the earlier period. But it’s still a lively and very enjoyable book.

TITLES S - T

Sad Cypress
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Dell Publishing / Dodd, Mead & Co.
1939



We already know at the beginning of the book that Elinor Carlisle is accused of murdering Mary Gerrard, but the story begins before that when an anonymous letter warns Elinor and her fiancé Roderick that a “young girl” is a potential rival with their elderly aunt, Laura Welman, whose considerable estate is expected as an inheritance by the young couple. They visit the invalid at Hunterbury and also see Mary Gerrard, a pretty local girl who was befriended by Mrs. Welman, paying for her schooling, lessons and trips abroad. This tends to make the locals and even her family resent Mary for “putting on airs, “ which is far from the case. Suddenly Aunt Laura dies, first communicating to Elinor that she wants Mary provided for. This becomes important when they find out she had no will at all, and her entire fortune falls on Elinor as her only blood relative. (Roddy is a nephew by marriage.) Elinor settles amounts on all of the servants and Mary Gerrard, in spite of the fact that her supposed fiancé has fallen hopelessly in love with the girl. As a result, Elinor calls off their engagement and sells the estate, and although she tries to split the inheritance with Roddy, he’s too proud to accept. Aunt Laura’s death makes everyone think about wills, so Elinor has one leaving all her money to Roddy, and Mary Gerrard has one leaving hers to an aunt in New Zealand. Next is a series of letters where we learn some old gossip about Aunt Laura and Lewis Rycroft who died in the Great War, and also that cranky old Mr. Gerrard has died. This brings Elinor, Mary Gerrard and Nurse Hopkins (who had been taking care of him) to clean out his belongings, and when Mary discovers that she was born before her parents were married, Hopkins tells her that Mr. Gerrard was not really her father. Elinor makes them sandwiches and tea, and it comes as a big surprise when they find that Mary has died, apparently poisoned. The local doctor, Peter Lord (who has an unrequited love for Elinor) calls Hercule Poirot to clear Elinor, who has been arrested for murder. The morphine used ties in with a vial of morphine that went missing from Nurse Hopkins’ bag previously, and Dr. Lord hints that if they dig up Aunt Laura, they might find morphine poisoning in her autopsy also, which at the time he thought might have been the most merciful way out for the old invalid. Dr. Lord introduces Poirot to Nurse Hopkins and Mrs. Bishop (the maid) whose impressions give him a lot of food for thought. Next he speaks with Roddy Welman and Mary’s admirer Ted, plus the lawyers, and starts to get a better picture of the people involved and their motives, especially when Roddy mentions the anonymous letter that started it all. Then he interviews Elinor in prison, and returns to the scene of the crime, where things start to look not so good for Dr. Lord. He finally gets a letter from Nurse Hopkins that explains that Mary Gerrard was the illegitimate child of Laura Welman and Lewis Rycroft (whose wife was in an asylum) and when he was killed in the war, she cooked up this idea to have her maid and Mr. Gerrard pretend it was their daughter instead. At the trial, things go about as you’d expect, and look none too good for Elinor, but then the most extraordinary thing happens. They call two witnesses from New Zealand who both say that Nurse Hopkins is really Mary Riley – exactly the aunt that Mary Gerrard made out her will to, who was her “adoptive” mother’s sister. Unfortunately, she disappears before she can be apprehended, and later it turns out there are several suspicious deaths in New Zealand among people who left her money, although there wasn’t enough evidence to catch her at it. But at least Elinor is acquitted, and Peter Lord arranges for her to get away and stay some place quiet so she can get her life back together. Poirot suggests a potential romance between them, since Roddy represents the old life she needs to get away from, and the book ends there. This story was a little unusual for Hercule Poirot, since he worked with the lawyers on his discoveries behind the scenes, rather than springing his surprise witnesses and evidence in everyone’s face right in the courtroom in grandstanding fashion. The story was nice enough, and the characters genuine and mostly likable, except for Elinor, who seemed just too peculiar and vague to be real. Everything seemed to “happen” to Elinor, and you got no sense of her having actual substance, which made the whole story less engaging. The ending explanation seemed unnecessarily complicated, and yet too commonplace to be really interesting. Well-written as they always are, but I wonder if these country folks were just too dull for Hercule Poirot’s brilliance, and perhaps Miss Marple might have been a better fit with this story instead.


Sara Crewe
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Scholastic Book Service
1963



This author also wrote “The Secret Garden,” a popular and well-regarded staple of juvenile literature. This would be a classic rags-to-riches tale, except that our staunch heroine, Sara, starts out rich in the first place. She lives in India with her sea-faring father, Captain Crewe, after the untimely death of her mother. When she becomes about 8 or so, the good captain decides that she would be better served going to boarding school in London, rather than living in a hot and uncivilized place like India. So he buys her a lot of expensive but inappropriate fancy dresses, and deposits her at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies, under the sour-faced guidance of Miss Minchin and her mousy younger sister. Naturally, they are anxious to make a good impression with Captain Crewe since he is paying in advance (and they know he is quite wealthy) and they promise to treat little Sara especially well. But Sara is bereft after her father goes back to India, and she finds no comfort at Miss Minchin’s. She considers the girls dull and complacent, which they can afford to be, coming from wealthy families. She sees right through the Miss Minchins, and is not duped by their calculated fawning. They treat Sara like a prize, showing her off to prospective families in her fine clothes, as if she is some sort of great accomplishment of theirs. After only a few years, Sara gets the terrible news that her father’s investments have gone horribly wrong, and the shock of losing his fortune is too much for him to bear. Although he is still a young man, he succumbs to a fever and dies, leaving poor Sara all alone in the world and penniless. The Miss Minchins decided to keep Sara around as a serving girl, and when she’s a little older, as an unpaid French tutor for the students. Sara’s life becomes a hard one of privation, toil and callous treatment. She works long hours, running errands in all weather, with bad food, skimpy clothes and a tiny drafty room with no heat. Her only friend is Emily, her doll, and sometimes she feels as if she can’t go on ay more. On one particularly bad day, when she was cold and wet and hungry running errands, she found a coin in the gutter right in front of a bake shop, and hurried in to buy some hot buns. The baker, taking pity on her, gave her two extra, but on her way out, Sara found a street urchin even more pathetic than she, and gave her the buns instead. Another of her little kindnesses had been to the old and sickly man next door, and she often spoke to his valet in Hindi, which she remembered from India. One night when she came home tired and bedraggled, she was sent to her rom without supper for being tardy, and she felt as miserable as anyone could ever feel. But when she went into her attic room, she was amazed to find a blazing fire, a soft rug, comfortable chair, warm blankets and dishes full of delicious food. Sara doesn’t know what to think, and tells no one but Emily her doll, but prays very hard to thank her secret friend. This keeps up, so that no matter what sort of terrible day she might have, when she goes to her room, there is wonderful food and heat, new clothes, pretty furnishings and all sorts of special touches. One day in conversation with the old man next door, it is discovered that he had been her father’s banker when his investments failed, but later one of them rallied, so that he would have been even wealthier, but it was too late. The Captain was dead, and the banker didn’t know where to find his daughter, so he saved the money and kept looking for her, consumed with guilt and feeling that he had failed his friend. In bad health, he decided to make Sara’s life happier secretly, not realizing she was the treasure he had searched for so long. Once he finds out who she is, he immediately pulls her out of Miss Minchin’s clutches, settles her father’s fortune on her, and takes her in as if his very own daughter. They live happily ever after, and Sara of course is a great benefactor to the poor. This is a very sweet story, without being maudlin or saccharine, and written in a plain and uncluttered style without a lot of flourishes and frivolities. It manages to totally engage your sympathies, so Sara’s redemption is both touching and thrilling. Matter-of-fact without being ironic, and sentimental in the best sense of the word without being melodramatic, a very enjoyable story. (There is also an expanded version of the story called “A Little Princess.”)


Sarah’s Angel
Judith Stafford
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Harlequin Books
1993




Sarah Barnes finds herself alone in the world after her parents’ deaths, and her suitor leaves her for a profitable match. She accepts a position as governess to three young children of Squire Anthony Whitfield, whose beloved wife had died. Lost in his grief, the Squire spends practically no time with his children, and never notices that the new governess he hired is a rather pretty young woman, instead of the usual dowdy older matron in these positions. When he overhears the children wishing for a new mother at Christmas, he resolves to marry again for their sakes. He hastily invites three young ladies, Miss Dennison, Miss Myerson and Miss Scott plus their chaperons, to stay for a week. This throws the household into an uproar, since the Squire has no idea all that is involved in this kind of hospitality. Enter Miss Barnes, cool and collected, who volunteers to help sort out the details and keep everything running smoothly. The staff accepts her help with gratitude, and her pleasant manner and common sense help keep everything under control. Although the Squire appreciates everything she does, he seems incapable of not putting more obstacles in her way. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that the three candidates don’t interest him in the slightest, and yet, he already promised his children that they could choose the one he should marry. More and more, he finds qualities to admire in Sarah, not just her quiet beauty, but her intelligence and good humor, her kindness and devotion to the children. In fact, the children already made a wish that he would marry her instead of any of the other ladies. Afraid of her growing feelings for him, Sarah does all she can to pair him up with sweet Miss Dennison – much to the despair of Lord Abbott, who already had his sights on her. When she continues to avoid the Squire, he begins to misconstrue her feelings as an aversion to him. Then Lord Abbott and Miss Dennison announce their intentions, effectively eliminating the last potential fiancee for the Squire. So he asks Sarah to marry him, so as not to disappoint the children, and she accepts for the sake of the children – but neither of them can admit the depths of their feelings for each other, and in fact, both are trying to forget an unexpectedly passionate embrace that seemed to create more problems than it solved. So they do get married, a few days before Christmas, in the little chapel next to the house. The children are delighted of course, but they are both miserable. They are both convinced that the other finds them repulsive, and so they avoid each other at all costs. Finally, the Squire decides that even though they’re already married, his only option is to woo Sarah and hope she falls in love with him. At last he realizes that he must convince her that although he still cherishes the memory of his first wife and mother of his children, she is no longer here, and he truly loves Sarah with all his heart. It all ends prettily and with great joy on Christmas morning. Well-written in a lively and uncluttered style, and entertaining throughout. The characters are personable and realistic, and the ending is very satisfying.


Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry
Harry Kemelman
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 2
Fawcett Crest
1966



David Small is the Rabbi in Barnard’s Crossing near Boston. Isaac Hirsch is found dead in his garage, either accidentally or by suicide. His wife requests that he is buried in the Jewish cemetery, even though he did not belong to the Temple. This creates tremendous controversy in the congregation, and the Rabbi resigns. The insurance adjuster decides that there is enough grounds to hold up the payment to the widow, so the Rabbi teams with the local Police to uncover what he can about the crime. It turns out that he was murdered by his supervisor at the Lab where he was working. This is in a series of amateur sleuth stories with Rabbi Small, who has an annoying habit of explaining Jewish stereotypes by replacing them with equally fallacious Christian stereotypes.


The Seven Dials Mystery
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 4
Dodd, Mead & Company
1929




Gerry Wade dies at Chimneys. Jumping in to solve the crime are Lady Eileen (Bundle) Brent, Jimmy Thesiger and the deceased’s half-sister. Bundle Brent, Bill Eversleigh and Inspector Battle were also previously in “The Secret of Chimneys.” Then Ronny Devereaux, who was snooping into Gerry’s death, is killed. There is a lot of nonsense about secret clubs, international spy rings and mysterious kingpins. The murderer turns out to be Jimmy Thesiger, which I found to be most unsporting.


The Shoes of the Fisherman
Morris West
Drama
Fiction
Rating 1
William Heinemann Ltd.
1963




After World War II, the Pope dies and is replaced with Kiril Cardinal Lakota, a Russian. There is all manner of deathless intrigue among the Italians in the Vatican, as well as an excruciating sub-plot involving an American journalist and a tourist. Even the KGB puts in an appearance. The writing it turgid and uninviting, and the story lurches from one miserable, sordid episode to another, with no resolution. Incredibly, made as a movie with Anthony Quinn and Laurence Olivier.


Sick of Shadows
Sharyn McCrumb
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 4
Ballantine
1984


Elizabeth MacPherson (who in future books of this series, is a forensic anthropologist) is invited to the wedding of her cousin Eileen Chandler, who is in line for a large inheritance. When she is murdered before the wedding, suspicion is deep, since the inheritance goes to whichever of them marries first among the siblings and cousins. It turns out that loony cousin Alban had killed his fiancee years before; when this was discovered by Eileen, he kills her and then himself. At this point in the series, Elizabeth had just been graduated from college and did not have a career goal – it was here she decides to pursue forensic anthropology. Lively and entertaining as all of them, with the author’s characteristic meandering plot, melodramatic dialogue and peculiar people.


Side Effects
Woody Allen
Humor
Fiction
Rating 2
Ballantine Books
1981




Depressing collection of unfunny short pieces. Very unlike “Without Feathers,” which was consistently buoyant and sparkling. This lurches from one horrible thing to another. Much too arch and sardonic to be funny. The only amusing tidbit was of a restaurant critic who reviews dishes based on their political messages. It was a glimpse of the old Woody Allen, but that was all. A disappointing entry from a much better writer.


Silver Nutmeg
Norah Lofts
Drama
Fiction
Rating 1
Doubleday
1947



Evert Hahn is a Dutch trader who settles on the island of Banda, in the Dutch East Indies in the 1600's. He sends a glove back to Holland as a proposal to the daughter of an old business rival. Annabet van Goen, a young girl whose good looks were ravaged by illness, sails there to be his wife. There’s a murky undertow of smuggling and native restlessness, plus a charismatic native leader called Shal Ahmi. When the natives revolt and kill all of the traders, it is left to Annabet to kill Shal Ahmi, and then she is killed by his assistant. A very depressing and demoralizing waste of time.


Sleeping Murder
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Bantam Books / Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
1976



This story was published posthumously as Miss Marple’s last case. It begins when newlyweds Gwenda and Giles Reed relocate from New Zealand to the south coast of England, and buy a charming seaside house in the sleepy town of Dillmouth. While visiting Giles’ cousin Raymond West, Gwenda hears a line in a play that throws her into an absolute uncontrollable panic. As she explains later to Raymond’s kindly Aunt Jane (of course, we know Miss Marple’s nephew from previous books) it suddenly comes flooding back to her that she had lived in that very house before as a very young child with her newly-widowered father, which is why it seemed so oddly familiar, and remembered those very words being spoken when she accidentally spotted the body of a dead woman in the hallway. She remembers nothing else about it, and her father died years ago, but Giles is keen to investigate this mystery right under their very noses. Miss Marple urges them to give up the idea as it might turn out very badly after all these years, but when they persist, she decides to stick close and hopefully prevent any disasters. When they begin their investigations, they learn that the supposed deceased would have been Helen, Gwenda’s step-mother, who reputedly married the widower after a whirlwind courtship and left just as suddenly for another man. (After that, young Gwenda was shipped off to live with relatives in New Zealand.) They turn up Helen’s brother who tells them a disturbing story of Gwenda’s father hallucinating about killing his new wife, and in fact, he admits to Dr. Kennedy that he strangled his sister, but when they return to the house, there is no sign of that happening. So Gwenda’s father the Colonel admits himself to a mental institution and later dies there. They are surprised to find out, when they go there, that he had committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. They speak to a former servant, Edith, about the events of the night in question, but even she can’t shed much light on the situation. They speak to Walter Fane who was engaged to Helen and would have married her except for a certain married man, and they also speak to the married man, Major Erskine, to no avail. Dr. Kennedy shows up with samples of his sister’s handwriting plus a letter supposedly sent from abroad after she disappeared. Miss Marple tracks down an elderly gardener who has some very curious things to say about the previous owners and makes her very concerned about the Reed’s safety. In fact, when one of the other former servants decides to come forward with her suspicions, they find out later that she was strangled on en route to Dr. Kennedy’s. The local Inspector Last who questioned them about it probably wanted to run them all in, rather than having all these rank amateurs rattling around stirring up trouble. Later when the Police dig up the garden and find Helen’s body, the housekeeper is overcome with shock, and when they give her some brandy to revive her, they find out it’s been poisoned and lucky to keep from killing her instead. After all the excitement of the morning, everyone leaves and Gwenda is alone when Dr. Kennedy comes and suddenly she realizes it must have been him all along, especially when he tries to strangle her to keep her quiet. Fortunately, Miss Marple sneaks in and catches him in the act. It turns out that he had been so possessive of his sister that he became obsessed with keeping her all to himself. When he found out that she and her husband were planning to move away (and get out from under his oppressive presence) he snapped and killed her. In fact, even before that, he was setting the stage for the Colonel thinking he was crazy by giving him strange drugs, filling his head with stories of Helen’s supposed infidelities, and giving Helen just cause to be terribly afraid of him. After the murder, he used all of his medical skills to turn Halliday into a tormented wreck, and one of the servants who saw him bury the body, he paid off and sent home to Switzerland and later killed her too. He believed the foreign servant had confided in one of the others, so when she contacted him, he killed her without even finding out if she new anything or not. It’s true that Dr. Kennedy was an obvious choice for a murderer, but the denouement is no less satisfying for that, and it does end up being nicely wrapped up by Miss Marple with unusual economy. And unlike other writers, you can almost always count on the main characters making it through to the end of the book, and feeling positive about the future. Well-written as always, with interesting and agreeable characters, and of course, you can’t top Miss Marple, with a good story well-plotted. Just a little bit wistful, being Miss Marple’s last case and published posthumously and all (and in fact, Dame Agatha does get in some whacks against some of her pet peeves, no doubt) but a very enjoyable read and not to be missed for its historical significance as the end of an era.


Sloop of War
Alexander Kent
Historical Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
McBooks Press, Inc.
1998
(1972 - Hutchinson, UK)



This is the fourth in the Richard Bolitho series of books by this author of British naval adventures in the colonial period, with this one starting in 1778, and Bolitho being made a Commander, as the fortunes of war can cause promotions to happen quickly. After bringing in the prize ships to Antigua (see previous book, “In Gallant Company”) Bolitho is surprised to find himself put in charge of the sloop “Sparrow” in the small fleet under Captain Vere Colquhoun. We meet Tyrrell, the First Lieutenant, whose family lives in America, but remained loyal to England. The little convoy is supposed to escort two supply ships to America, but halfway there, they bump into the Miranda from England with the unwelcome news that France has allied with the colonists. Colquhoun and the other ship return to Antigua, leaving Miranda and Sparrow to lead the transports to America. Along the way, Miranda walks into a trap by trying to catch an American privateer, only to be attacked by a larger French ship behind it. Miranda is just about destroyed, her captain killed, but in spite of it all, she fought hand-to-hand with the French ship in order to buy time for Sparrow to come to her rescue. Unfortunately over the years, Sparrow’s previous dilettante captain kept them out of action and they are unprepared for real combat. Using good strategy, they are able to damage and chase off the French ship and help lead the little convoy to safety. Everyone is surprised at their next orders, to carry a General Foley and his Canadian soldiers to Delaware Bay and try to locate a missing foot patrol carrying gold bullion. It turns out another English general and wealthy landowner had commandeered the soldiers to carry off his possessions to safety, but they were attacked by the French and cut to ribbons. The sailors manage to drag the survivors aboard and dash for the ocean, but they are attacked by a larger French ship in the bay. Luckily the French run aground on a sand bar, and Sparrow makes good her escape to the open sea. They end up stuck in New York awaiting supplies and repairs, while the disgruntled General tries to make trouble by bad-mouthing them . They are supposed to carry dispatches back to Antigua, and see the same French ship that attacked the Miranda, but outrun her this time. Unfortunately, they happen across a crippled ship returning cargo and passengers to England (including the odious General) and have to think fast to protect both of them when the French ship turns up again. They use the crippled ship as a lure to get the French to attack, and when the ships are held together with grappling hooks, they set them on fire and abandon ship, knowing they can be rescued by Sparrow, while the French are on their own. When they return to Antigua, the Admiralty makes Bolitho a full Captain, although still with Colquhoun’s little flotilla. In two years, they become famous for capturing prize ships for the British war effort, until they are considered a target by the enemy and need to watch out for traps on every side. In the Bahamas, Colquhoun decides to catch a prize French ship in harbor, but it turns out to be a trap instead, and even Sparrow can’t save the other sloop Fawn from being completely destroyed and losing almost all hands. At the court-martial in New York, Colquhoun tries to blame it all on Bolitho, but the facts don’t bear him out and he’s sent back to England in disgrace. At a reception later, Bolitho bumps into Susannah, General Blundell’s niece, who he thought had returned to England when the Sparrow rescued all of them from their crippled ship under the nose of the French. She invites him to dinner, although he realizes that he is hopelessly out of his depth. Sparrow is next ordered farther north and stumbles on an unexpected fleet of French warships, which she outruns so as to return to New York with reports. On the way, they accidentally bump into a brig pretending to be British, but they recognize the captain from the French ship that sank the Miranda, and what’s more, Bolitho knows him from being in cahoots with General Blundell. When he reports all this to the Admiral, he is warned to leave New York right away, since many rich and powerful scoundrels he has exposed would be after his hide. He can’t resist one more visit with Susannah, being so smitten with her, but she laughs at his infatuation and leads him straight into a trap. It is only the quick thinking of his crew who secretly followed him that saves his life, a sadder but wiser man. The Admiral sends the tiny convoy back to Bahama to scout around but they find nothing there. When they hear news of big doings in the Chesapeake, they hurry up there and send a landing party to find out what’s happening. One of the officers panics, causing the mission to misfire badly with many casualties. By the time they are warned that the entire French fleet is heading to Chesapeake, it’s too late for them to sneak out unobserved. They fight their way out past a transport of Army soldiers and a frigate, inflicting heavy damage and casualties, but also being badly damaged and losing many good men, including the sailing master and also the craven officer who botched the landing mission. Hurrying north, they bump into the English fleet and give them the news, thus setting the stage for the decisive Battle of the Chesapeake that ultimately won the war for the Americans. (Much like the Civil War, it was bad strategy on the part of the British which snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and turned the tide of history.) The book ends with the Sparrow returning to England with a bittersweet sense of pride in their accomplishments, overshadowed by the overall failure of the war effort. This book is good in this series and is singularly remarkable in its depiction of the Revolutionary War, so as not to alienate readers on either side of the conflict. You would think that would be impossible, but it’s a neat trick to pull off and well done. Unfortunately, because the war enters into it only tangentially, as the Sparrow is usually far away or otherwise involved, it’s not nearly as interesting as you would expect of a book from this period. But it’s well-written in a clear and easy style, and the story never lags, but moves along in a lively way from one adventure to another. The characters are all interesting and drawn with warts and all, although you don’t dare get too fond of anyone because you never know who’s not going to make it to the end of the book, which is a hallmark of this series. I found this story to be interesting enough and enjoyable, and being on hand for Bolitho’s first real command was a treat not to be missed.


Smouldering Fire
D.E. Stevenson
Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Holt, Rinehart & Winston
1938



Iain MacAslan owns the manor house of Arfalloch in the highlands with its farms and rivers – but he can’t afford to keep the place up, so he lets it for the summer to an English businessman, his intention being to invite clients to stay with them for the shooting and fishing. One of their house-guests is Linda Medworth, a young lady who has recently been through a notorious and bitter divorce, along with her young son. Years earlier, Iain had fallen in love with her on first sight when he was in London – and here she is, turning up on his doorstep! They fall in love (much to the distress of neighbor Margaret Finlay who was widely expected to marry him) but then her ex-husband shows up and starts making trouble for everyone. He believes he can show their relationship in a bad light and regain custody of their son. Iain and Linda are crushed by his threats and can see no way out of the difficulties without any harm coming to the youngster. Fortunately Iain’s right hand man Donald MacNeil sees trouble brewing and eliminates the troublesome ex-husband with no one being the wiser. Scotland Yard investigates the mysterious “disappearance” but can find nothing. So Iain and Linda marry and live happily ever after, one hopes. This is a sweet and picturesque story from an author famous for them – wonderful and evocative atmosphere, details of country life, appealing characters and dialogue that rings true. Very enjoyable, although the plot fell apart a bit at the end.


So Far
Kelsey Grammer
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Dutton Signet / Penguin Books
1995


Actor Kelsey Grammar played the part of Frasier Crane on the long-running TV sitcom “Cheers.” Later, his character was spun off onto his own show, “Frasier,” which was also a hit sitcom. His personal life, however, was anything but humorous. He writes unflinchingly about his abusive, dysfunctional family, and the murders of his sister and father. He claims to have overcome the demons of alcohol and drugs, but recent news stories prove otherwise. His writing is direct and uncluttered, with a style that is interesting and conversational. Unintentionally depressing, without a lot of snappy Hollywood anecdotes to liven it up.


Soldier of Orange
Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Random House
1980


This is supposed to be a true story of a rakish young aristocrat who is suddenly transformed by events into a daring resistance hero of World War II. It’s disjointed and disorienting enough to be true – the heroes are flawed, the villains are sympathetic, there are no punchy anecdotes or perfect daring escapades. Just the usual grinding stupidity and dullness of a vast war, with unexpected violence. Not at all the light-hearted, fanciful adventure the cover would lead you to believe. Also, incredibly somehow made into a movie.


Some Are Born Great
Adela Rogers St. Johns
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Doubleday
1975


This is a collection of concise biographical sketches of American women important to the author. She reviews their lives in a snappy, informal style, treating them with kindness but not blind adulation. Includes Judy Garland, Amelia Earhart, Carrie Nation, Mother Cabrini, Bess Truman, Margaret Mitchell, Marion Davies and others. Has a tendency to be rambling and somewhat eccentric, but always entertaining.


So Near and Yet So Far
Emily Kimbrough
Travel
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Harper & Brothers
1955



Here is another in a series of books by this author, known for her travelogues. In his entry, Emily and her college chum Luz, Sophy, Darn, Kat and Ellen - now established in their careers, jet-setters and bon vivants - take the train from New York to New Orleans, where they hope to soak up the local flavor and enjoy themselves. Starting with Emily’s usual inept arrangements of accommodations, they find themselves crammed together on the train with their luggage, but fortunately the trip is not overly long for all that. As usual, Sophy travels with her shoe-bag full of alcoholic beverages which is a most welcome sight in the midst of their various misadventures. When they arrive in New Orleans, they are assured by a wide variety of people who have pulled strings on their behalf, that they can expect special attention and gracious accommodations at their hotel, which Emily has learned to her regret is always the kiss of death and this is no exception. It’s also homecoming week for Tulane University, so just getting hotel rooms and meals at all is problematic. In the morning when they go sightseeing in the French quarter, they are suitably charmed by the architecture, shops and other interesting sights. It turns out that Ellen’s architect built one of the locally famous houses and when they go to see it, the owner volunteers her chauffeur, Atkins, for their tour guide. The ladies are all highly cultured and seasoned travelers, so they are quick to enjoy not only the sights, but also all of the decorations, fashions and gourmet meals that are presented to them. They are suitably impressed with their trip to a working sugar cane grinding mill, and only the usual contretemps over Sophy’s driving and her erstwhile short-cuts. Their trip out of town to soak up the local flavor was a big hit, even if the driving by their hosts reduced them to ashen-faced wrecks. Back in New Orleans, they were invited on the mayor’s yacht for an excursion down the river and then they were descended on by friends of Emily’s from Chicago, who introduced them to even more wonderful sights and experiences, such as the arrival of the shrimp fleet, which the locals feel is not to be missed. The fleet coming in is all the rage in this area, and the ladies find it fascinating and picturesque. Their appreciation is so welcome that everyone they see either invites them in for a meal, or forces fresh shrimp on them to take away, so that they despair of ever be able to eat it all. But they all agree that it is simply the best shrimp they’ve ever had, no matter how it is served. They did some more exploring around the levees and plantations and old cemeteries, but had to pass up a helicopter ride to an oil rig in the Gulf, they said, due to Emily’s fear of flying, although she accused them of all of hiding behind her skirts. One of their favorite excursions was traveling along on the mail boat, with the man who delivers the mail to all of the far-flung cottages scattered around through the labyrinthian bayous, although it does turn into a somewhat long and uncomfortable day out. They were sorry to lose Luz, who had to return home for a family obligation, but were consoled when relatives of Kat’s invited them to visit their homes on Avery Island, a world-famous bird sanctuary, where watching the birds flock in for the night is a treasured attraction. Their efforts to see the flocks flying off at dawn are defeated by sheer sleepiness, after too much good food and socializing the day before.


Spencerville
Nelson DeMille
Drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Warner Books
1994


This author has written a large number of espionage books, but he has also branched out into other genres, like “Plum Island” and this book. This story concerns Keith Landry, a former CIA operative who is unceremoniously “retired” from his government position with the end of the Cold War. In the absence of more appealing options, he decides to return to the family farm in Spencerville, Ohio, and sort things out. He “accidentally” runs into his high school sweetheart, Annie, and they re-kindle the flame that two decades have not extinguished. Annie is married to Cliff Baxter, the former school bully who is now the Police Chief. He maintains a web of legal and political influence through relatives, blackmail, harassment and terrorizing the locals. He keeps Annie on a short leash – watching her movements, monitoring her calls, having her followed – but she and Keith still manage to meet and make plans to run away together. Baxter and his flunkies harass Keith around town and give him a hard time whenever they can, but with Keith’s background in unfriendly totalitarian regimes, this is penny ante stuff. Just when Keith and Annie have their plans in place to escape, Keith is suddenly recalled to Washington for an interview with the President about a possible new job and promotion. He doesn’t want it, but cannot refuse to meet with the President. His return is delayed by a hurricane in Maryland, and when he does get back and pick up Annie, they do not get the head-start that he was counting on. (He didn’t realize that Baxter had transmitting devices installed on his and Annie’s cars.) After Keith and Annie miss the last flight out of Toledo, they hide out overnight in a flea-bag motel. Baxter and a couple of his minions follow the transmitter to Toledo and happen onto the right motel in a series of unlucky coincidences. The cops grab Annie, and Baxter beats up Keith before running out ahead of the city Police. Three days later, Keith wakes up in the hospital and sneaks out, so he can rescue Annie from her husband’s clutches at his hunting cabin in the Michigan lakes. He brings along Billy Marlon, an old school pal who is also a veteran, and has his own score to settle with Baxter. The cabin is isolated and fortified, including guard dogs and booby traps. Although they kill the dogs, Billy Marlon falls in a trap and is killed by Baxter – and just when Baxter gets the drop on Keith, Annie manages to escape from her shackles and kills her husband with a fireplace poker. This is one rip-roaring cracker-jack thriller that picks you up on the first page and drags you along breathlessly for 500 pages with no let-up. Well-written in a punchy, conversational style, with characters you genuinely care about, and a real feel for small-town rural life. It even manages to have a sentimental aspect, which is rare in this type of adventure story. An excellent book.


Split End
George Blair
Humor
Fiction
Rating 3
Lancer Books
1971



The fictional George Blair is a hack writer of prurient literature. His publisher asks him to write a biography of Johnny Lee Studwell, famous pro kicker, a childhood friend. The book makes a lot out of the fact that Johnny Lee is a sodomist, which is supposed to be shocking. George writes an expurgated biography with the truth in parentheses. He meets the beautiful Teddy Bear, who has a twin brother who dresses as a girl and marries Johnny Lee. Improbable but somewhat amusing and without rancor.


Sport
Dick Schaap
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 2
Arbor House
1975



Sports columnist Dick Schaap has led a varied career in journalism, including sports, politics, police reporting, society and entertainment. This book is a collection of some of his favorite columns from different times and places. It includes biographical sketches of athletes, entertainers, crime victims and politicians. I’m usually a big fan of Dick Schaap’s writing, which I find concise, witty and insightful – but I found this book dull, rambling and cynical.


Stand Into Danger
Alexander Kent
Historical Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
McBooks Press, Inc.
1980 (Hutchinson, UK)



Here is another very early entry in this series of historical fiction, set amid the warships of the British empire. Richard Bolitho, now a new 3rd Lieutenant in 1774, is assigned to the frigate Destiny. Somewhere between the previous book and this one, he managed to lose his best friend, Martyn Dancer, and also his sister Nancy’s delight. His brother Hugh, last on his way to an official inquiry about a botched mission, is now back at sea, and his father has lost an arm in battle and been mustered out of the Navy. Here on Destiny, Bolitho meets fellow officers Palliser and Rhodes, and the Captain Henry Vere Dumaresq. As the first order of business, they send Bolitho ashore to round of “volunteers” to serve on the ship and he returns with a few locals including the immense Stockdale. Then they get under weigh with secret orders and an unknown destination, and in terrible weather besides. After a week, they land in Portugal, where the courier bringing ashore secret dispatches is summarily murdered in the streets and his papers stolen. After that, the Captain flees the port in the dead of night. Later, the Captain confides to his officers that their mission is to re-capture a Spanish ship loaded with gold bullion that slipped away from its original captors – but this is apparently no secret, when they find themselves being followed out in the middle of the ocean. The Captain decides to attack the other ship, which turns out to be a private British ship out for treasure. The plot thickens when they land in Rio and the Captain calls on a wealthy British ex-patriate who was in cahoots with the gang that made off with the Spanish treasure ship, and who he also holds responsible for his father’s death. Even though Dumaresq threatens Edgmont, he refuses to cooperate and in fact, slips out of town under their noses. The Captain gives chase and catches up with the runaway ship just as it’s being attacked by pirates. After a pitched battle, they beat the pirates off, and using Edgmont’s information, head to the Caribbean after Piers Garrick, the mastermind behind the whole sordid business. Meanwhile, after a few chance encounters, Bolitho has become hopelessly infatuated with Edgmont’s young wife, the exquisite Aurora, and any idiot could tell that no good could come of that. On a routine mission for fresh water, Bolitho is seriously wounded in an ambush and Aurora nurses him back to health. Whey they reach St. Christopher, and the local authorities refuse the help them, the Captain leaves Bolitho in their care ostensibly to recuperate, but really to be his “inside man” as the situation develops. It turns out, as the Captain had anticipated, that Aurora and Bolitho have a tryst and she slips him the information on Garrick’s whereabouts. They sail there at once, although Bolitho can’t help feeling used and betrayed. They discover Garrick in a well-fortified hideaway, and land some men ashore secretly in the hopes of gaining control of their outlying batteries. This works better than expected, and they actually get the upper hand in a battle among the ships in the lagoon, although with a terrible cost in lives. And there we draw the curtain, without actually bring Garrick to justice, although we do find out that he killed both Edgmont and Aurora, a fact the Captain conceals from Bolitho for his own good. In the epilogue, he returns home to Falmouth to find his mother has suddenly died, his father returned from the sea a broken man, and his sister Nancy’s earlier grief pushed her to a hasty marriage with the local Squire’s son. Already there were orders for him to report to the Trojan as 2nd Lieutenant, since Rhodes was killed in battle. And there it ends, practically on the doorstep of the American Revolution. This book was so terribly melancholy and wistful, right from the beginning, as if the person writing it had suffered a great tragedy and couldn’t keep their sadness out of the story. Usually these stories are more lively, although not light-hearted, with a frank and unflinching look at life in the colonial-era Navy. Well-written as always, and interesting in a historical sense, but dogged with this sense of loss and woefulness nipping at its heels all the while. The characters are nice enough, but there seemed to be an abundance of them, more than usual, and even more so, confusion among many similar names. Still interesting and full of adventure, but not up to the standard usually set by the books in this series.


Stardust
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
1990



Boston Private Investigator Spenser is asked to protect Jill Joyce, the star of a TV series where his girlfriend Susan works as a technical adviser. Jill has been getting harassing calls and other messages on the set. Then Jill’s stunt double gets killed while wearing Jill’s new coat. An old boyfriend of Jill’s points Spenser in the direction of her husband, a country bumpkin no one knows about. It also turns out that she has a daughter with a Latino drug dealer in California, and no one knows about that either. Then she disappears from the hotel security guards, and her husband turns up dead. Spenser retrieves her from the protection of the Latino drug dealer, and finds out that it was her abusive father who had been threatening her, and killed her stunt double, trying to extort money from her. Well-written as always, and consistent with this series.


Summers With The Bears
Jack Becklund
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 2
Hyperion
1999

The author and his wife re-located from Florida to the backwoods of Minnesota, taking a sabbatical from their newspaper jobs to focus on writing. They settled in a cabin on Elbow Creek, six miles north of tiny Grand Marals, which is on the north shore of Lake Superior. His immigrant grandparents settled in Grand Marals, so it was a sort of homecoming for him, although this cabin was much more isolated. This area of Minnesota has a very small human population, and the area is teeming with wildlife – black bears, deer, moose, coyotes, raccoons, wolves, beavers, bobcats, otters, eagles and mountain lions. Having lived in cities (his wife from Rochester, New York) they moved to the cabin with a wary respect for wild animals and a fear of bears. But as anyone can tell you who lives in the woods, if you have birdfeeders, you will get bears. At first, they frightened the bears away with noise and various projectiles. But then in 1990, a small and scrawny bear walked up their driveway and into their hearts. They called her “Little Bit” and she was friendly and trusting, coming right up on their back deck for sunflower seeds. At first, they thought she was an orphan, but after reading more about bears, they realized that she was just a yearling cub out on her own, after her mother went off to start a new family. She returned regularly with more of her yearling friends, young and alone and confused by the whole world, and they would enjoy food and companionship and play in their yard. Although they worried that the bears would become too tame, and in fact, they could pet them and feed them by hand, the bears were always wary around strangers and never depended on them for food instead of foraging. When they took possession of the local newspaper, The Cook County News Herald, they included a column about the bears in their yard, which drew much comment, both positive and negative. They describe in detail about how bears begin hibernating in September and would return fitfully to their yard beginning in May. Each spring, they would anxiously await the return of “their” bears (they gave them all names based on physical characteristics or personality traits) and see who brought new cubs or other friends with them. Although they often had strange bears stop by for a meal, they were rarely frightened – since black bears are generally easy-going and engage in “posturing” rather than actual fighting. Although several bears were shot, and a couple electrocuted on nearby power lines, for the most part, their bears returned safely in the spring. Although bears in captivity can live to be 25 years old, in the wild, they rarely live longer than seven. In 1995, there were raging forest fires in the area, due to drought conditions all year. That made it difficult for bears to forage, and when bear-hunting season opened in September, they had a record number of bears killed, largely because of the appeal of bait traps. Their bears survived, but that winter was one of the coldest ever, with temperatures around -40 degrees. It was the following spring that Little Bit didn’t return, and of course, they never knew what happened to her or her cubs. Although other bears returned, they lost their enthusiasm for feeding them, and in fact, moved back to Florida. The book is interesting and engaging, although written in a somewhat awkward amateurish style. The pictures are a delight, and many of the escapades, especially involving chipmunks and flying squirrels, are hilarious. But it’s ultimately depressing, like reading a book about someone with a terminal illness, who you know is going to die in the end.


Sweet Doro
Dixie Lee McKeone
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Harlequin
1989

Young Dorothea Sailings, dowager Baroness of Lindsterhope, had been married off to the old Baron to act as a mother figure to his son and daughter. Although the family fortune was large, when the Baron died, the estate was held in trust until his son would come of age. After years of living frugally, finally Tom is about to come into his fortune, and already the fortune hunters are sniffing around him and his sister Farrie. Doro comes up with the idea to bring them to London and give them some experience with society, before they have any money to be swindled out of, so they will recognize the danger signs later. Meanwhile, Garreth, the Viscount Tolver, was pressed into service as the guardian of Charlie, the young Marquess of Ridgeley, upon the death of Garreth’s older brother and Charlie’s father. Garreth has brought Charlie and his childhood friend Amelia to London, also to learn about society. Then it turns out that Doro and Garreth were once young chums, and his plans to marry her were thwarted by her family’s preference for the Baron instead. When they meet years later in London with their young charges, Doro realizes with a start that she still has a strong yearning for him, in spite of her efforts to resist. Once in London, the reports of their impending fortune have already reached society, and even Doro finds herself the unwelcome attraction of fortune hunters. They begin the youngsters in society with a few proper invitations with respectable people. Chance throws them together even further when Amelia’s mother has to leave London suddenly, and Garreth persuades Doro to move in with all of them together, so she can act as surrogate hostess for Amelia’s parties. Doro tries her best not to be jealous when match-making matrons toss their eligible daughters across Garreth’s path at every opportunity. Somehow their little party manages to attract all the most odious people in London, so it is with some relief that Doro is able to renew an acquaintance with Baskin, a distant cousin from her childhood. This seems to put Garreth out of sorts, though Doro never suspects he might be jealous. In spite of everyone’s vigilance, Tom does in fact get roped into a scrape where he loses a large amount at a crooked gambling house. But Garreth willingly lends him the money, and Tom is sworn off gambling forever, plus he gets a better insight into people pretending to be his friends. Next, it’s the night of Amelia’s coming-out party, and suddenly the book is over, and the ending is too precipitous by half. It ends in a confused muddle of mistaken identities, faked elopements, practical jokes, marriage proposals and all manner of rushing about. Garreth finally does propose to Doro, but it’s hardly the climactic moment you would expect in a book like this. In fact, this whole story seems anachronistic, compared with more modern versions, which are so formulaic nowadays. Well-written in an old-fashioned style that never seems precious, which is a hard trick to pull off. It is sometimes a bit overly melodramatic, but not offensively so. A nice enough story, if unexciting, with characters that are genuine and likable for the most part. The ending has more loose ends than you would normally expect in a book full of young couples, but it’s still peasant throughout.


Tales From A Village School
Miss Read
Drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Houghton Mifflin
1995



This is another in a series of books written about a small English village and the residents. This is actually a collection of short stories told mostly by the school teacher about the day-to-day trials and rewards to be found in a small school. There are stories about a new student, pilfering eggs, nature walks, crafts projects, leaky roofs and the ubiquitous Christmas pageant. Written in a lively but charming and conversational style, the stories are all sweet, fun-loving and kind.


Tales From Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffett
Drama
Fiction
Rating 4
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
1989



This is a collection of short stories from an author better known as a singer and songwriter. The first story concerns Tully Mars, a cowboy who has lived in Heartache, Wyoming his whole life, but when the cattle ranch he works for gets taken over by developers, he quits and heads for the open road. He finds himself in Heat Wave, a small island off Alabama, and from there, joins a shrimp boat going to South America, bringing along a waitress that he met along the way. All of theses stories are related either geographically or by characters, so in the next story, we’ve already met twins Aurora and Bora Alice Porter, proprietesses of the Northern Lights Café in Heat Wave. They talk Romeo Fleming, former NFL player, into coaching the high school football team, and they beat their arch-rivals in a wild and woolly contest. Then, Angel Beech and her sometimes boyfriend Hannah Hearndon both return to Heat Wave when a hurricane threatens the area, and re-discover their feelings for each other. Next up is a sort of ghost story about a haunted golf course, featuring grown-up version of players from the Heat Wave high school football team from a previous story. Then Jim Delaney and his wild Uncle Bill go off on a tear around Pascagoula. Young orphan Isabella leaves Martinique to follow her heart, and she finds herself on Snake Bite Key with Slade Patterson from other stories. Slade signs a record deal and moves to New York, while Isabella goes to Paris and opens a restaurant. Next we meet Lance Larimoore III, living as a beach bum in Margaritaville (this is a mythical tropical island full of ex-patriates) and having his ups and downs since being cut loose financially by his family. After that, the author meets his (mythical) hero Freddy, lead singer of Freddy & the Fish Sticks, on their way to Key Largo, and spends the day drinking in his advice about a career in music. The next section is called “Son of a Son of a Sailor” and has auto-biographical stories in it. First, he talks about going to Cuba with a documentary crew to interview Gregorio Fuentes, about whom Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Old Man and the Sea,” which is the author’s favorite book. Then there’s some family sailing anecdotes about getting becalmed with no food, and living by their wits until getting rescued. After that, he and his family visit a small island off Cancun, supposedly haunted by the ghost of a pirate who lived there. The last story is about the time he and two friends sailed out in a bad storm, and just barely limped into the British Virgin Islands two days later. This is a very entertaining book, from a natural-born storyteller. The writing is informal and engaging, and the stories slip effortlessly by, like a special dessert. It refers to itself as “fictional facts and factual fictions,” and it all seems genuine and honest, although more amusing than real life, perhaps only in retrospect. It never lags and never seems forced, or becomes arch, takes itself too seriously or hits an easy target for a cheap laugh. Witty, articulate and interesting throughout, a very enjoyable book, more than might have been expected.


Taming A Sea Horse
Robert B. Parker
Crime drama
Fiction
Rating 3
Delacorte Press
1986



Boston Private Investigator Spenser is asked to locate April Kyle, a call girl who has left her establishment and vanished. (This is 10 years after the first book with April, “Ceremony.”) He finds through other prostitutes that April has gone off with a new pimp for better opportunities. Then one of the prostitutes gets killed and so does the pimp, so it’s obviously part of a bigger situation. It turns out to be a sort of complicated tangle involving local crooked politicians, businessmen and mobsters (this time a Mr. Milo and Jacky Wax) laundering their money through a bank where the President gets special favors, such as calls girls like April. When Spenser makes enough of a pest of himself, they realize it’s better to give April back to him and get him out of their hair.


The Tangle Box
Terry Brooks
Fantasy
Fiction
Rating 4
Ballantine Books
1994


In this 4th story of the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, King Ben Holiday and his wife Willow are having a baby. Unfortunately, the Evil Gorse escapes from the Tangle Box and in his place, he imprisons Ben, the dragon Strabo and the witch Nightshade. Willow must travel to three worlds to collect soils in order to have the baby. This leaves the Kingdom in the hands of Questor Thews, the Magician. Things go from bad to worse until the three captives escape from the Tangle Box, just in time to face down the Iron Mark and demons from Abbadon. Willow has a baby girl and all ends well.


Tango
Alan Judd
Drama
Fiction
Rating 2
Summit Books / Simon & Schuster
1990



English businessman William Wooding is transferred by his company to South America to straighten out a branch there. Instead, he becomes involved with a local girl and her acquaintances at Maria’s Tango Club, and their plot to overthrow the government. He is contacted by Arthur Box, a government intelligence operative, and they plan elaborate schemes to accomplish their goals. In the end, everything comes a cropper, and the CIA steps in to mop up. The book jacket would lead you to believe this story is a zany, madcap romp of hapless spies, naive revolutionaries and big-hearted prostitutes. In fact, it is a depressing and sordid morality tale, marred by disillusionment, betrayal and shocking violence. The characters are unlikable and the resolution unsatisfying.


That Day the Rabbi Left Town
Harry Kemelman
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Fawcett Columbine / Ballantine Books (Random House)
1996



Here is another in a series of books by this author and featuring Rabbi David Small who also does amateur sleuthing on the side. After serving his congregation in Barnard’s Crossing (Massachusetts) for 25 years, the Rabbi retires to take a job teaching Judaic studies at Windermere College in Boston. Although the congregation never exactly warmed up to Rabbi Small, they try to do the right thing by him, giving him a nice send-off, including his replacement, the charismatic rabbi Selig. And although he tries to stay out of it, he finds the college environment to be a hotbed of political intrigue and maneuvering. Since this is the first year of having an actual Judaic Studies Department, not just a course, no one knows what to expect, although they ask the Rabbi to keep some office hours that he can be available to answer questions from the students or the staff. He meets some people he knows on campus, from his town, congregation or their relatives. The big man on campus is Professor Kent who was married to a direct descendant of college founder Ezra Clark and lives in the Clark House on campus, wielding a subtle but unmistakable power and influence, and resisting all efforts to make him retire. No one dares cross him, especially because of a murky provision in the college charter that may give him control over some of their property. Rabbi Small also meets with new Rabbi Selig, who seems nice enough, in a modern sort of way. He seems more interested in possessions and status than thorny spiritual issues, and his wife, who is a lawyer, is a far cry from what most congregations expect in a Rabbi’s wife. Next comes an interlude where we learn Professor Kent’s background from humble beginnings in St. Louis, to London where he re-invented himself with a new name and academic credentials. They accepted him on sight at Windermere because they were short-staffed and never checked his degrees. Then he found if he sucked up to Matilda Clark, her power protected him, and when they got married, his place at the college was secure, even after she died. When the Rabbi’s new course starts, he has nine students, all Jewish, plus a staff member who asked to sit in. They argue some about doctrine, but mostly it’s a course of Jewish philosophy. Then the Rabbi asks his wife if they couldn’t relocate to a sub-let apartment in Boston, because he feels in the way around his congregation with the new Rabbi. It causes a local furor when Rabbi Selig’s wife reports Professor Kent for peeking in her bedroom window, but even more so a few days later when he turns up dead in a snow bank. When the police investigate, they don’t have any trouble finding out that Rabbi Selig made threats about Kent after the “Peeping Tom” incident with his wife. They also discover Lorraine Bixby, who had ties to Kent and her husband Donofrio who used to hit him up for money. Interestingly there’s a $50,000 life insurance policy of Kent’s with their daughter as the beneficiary. In the and, it turns out to be Thorvald Miller, another English professor, who had apparently been befriended by Kent (he was instrumental in getting him tenure) but it turns out to be because he was blackmailing him instead. Not for money, obviously, but for companionship and always having someone at his beck and call. Miller confesses happily, claiming justifiable homicide after years of torment. Interestingly, Kent’s hold over Miller was due to falsified credentials, the same trick that Kent used and got away with. Later the Dean admits to Rabbi Small that he knew Kent was a fraud, but that the trustees couldn’t face the scandal or damage to the college’s academic reputation if they exposed him. It’s the Rabbi who figures out the crime, not only because of the blackmail, but that Miller had constructed such a careful alibi including phone calls, bus schedules and leaving his briefcase on the train as proof that he was there. (He wasn’t.) These books, though well-written, are always more travelogue than mystery and usually interesting but not in any mysterious way. The characters are nice enough but not in the least engaging, so you really don’t care what happens to any of them. Most of the story is red herrings and sometimes tedious at that. Because the Rabbi had left his congregation, at least there wasn’t the usual internecine wrangling that commonly mars these stories. Nice enough of this type but insubstantial.


There Is A Tide
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Dell Publishing
By arrangement with Dodd, Mead & Co.
1948


Unlike most Agatha Christie mysteries, this one has a little bit of trouble getting off the ground. It begins in South Africa during World War II when a chorus girl marries a soldier “to get away from things.” Later she’s unhappy and asks for a divorce. He’s opposed to divorce, but confides in an Army pal his plan to fake his death so she can be free without divorce. Sure enough, the word comes out that he has died in Africa from fever. His widow, Rosaleen, later marries wealthy Gordon Cloade, and when a bomb blows up his house, it kills him and the servants, although Rosaleen escapes with injuries and recovers. Unfortunately, this sudden turn of events makes her inherit his whole fortune, leaving all of his relatives, who he had been supporting for years, out in the cold. Gordon’s sister-in-law looks up Hercule Poirot and asks him to find out if Rosaleen’s first husband is really still alive, but he declines the case, and later he has reason to believe the man had been discovered still alive and then killed by interested parties. One by one, all of the Cloade brothers (or their wives) and his sister fall into financial difficulties (some desperate) and apply to Rosaleen for a loan, only to be rebuffed by her surly brother David. Next, a mysterious stranger shows up in town and tries to blackmail David with proof that her first husband is still alive, and later this “Enoch Arden” (supposed to be the alias of the presumed dead Underhay) is murdered in his room at the inn. When questioned by the Police, Rosaleen does not identify the body as her first husband. But Rowley Cloade looks up Hercule Poirot, who finds an old Army pal of Underhay’s, who positively identifies the victim as Underhay. The Police have no choice but to charge the hot-headed David with murder, since he had the most to gain and also because they got wind of the blackmail attempt, although they have no proof that he killed him. Next, the old Army buddy kills himself, although he leaves no note. The next person who winds up dead is Rosaleen, and when David is released for lack of evidence, he accuses all the Cloades of finally doing away with her while he’s in jail and can’t protect her anymore. It turns out to be very much different, as Poirot explains. First of all, one of the Mrs. Cloades hires her cousin to pose as the “dead” Robert Underhay and try to blackmail David Hunter, to protect her husband from the effects of his embezzling. Rowley spots the family resemblance and has a confrontation with the man, ends up punching him so he falls over and hits his head on the fireplace fender and dies. Rowley decides to frame David for it, so he hits him with the fireplace poker and leaves David’s lighter there as evidence. He cooks up a scheme with Underhay’s old Army buddy to say it really was Underhay (and annoys Poirot by using him as the stooge that supposedly brings them together) but the old man later gets cold feet and kills himself. Then it turns out that the dead Rosaleen isn’t even Rosaleen at all, the real Rosaleen was killed along with her husband in the bombing. Right from the start, the opportunistic David realized that he could use another female (in this case, the Irish maid, the only other person to survive the blast) in place of Rosaleen and still live off of her inheritance. But the Irish maid was also suffering from a guilty conscience, and also David knew that if Underhay or anyone who knew them back when, saw this girl, they’d know at a glance that it wasn’t really Rosaleen. So he snuck some morphia into her sleeping pills and she conveniently died while he was in jail. The whole story was very complicated and over-plotted, with many confused sub-plots and side twists that were more distracting than useful. The ending was more interesting than expected, although it was told in a muddled and anti-climactic way. The worst part is that the fitful romance between Lynn Marchmont and Rowley Cloade finally was resolved happily, in spite of the fact that he himself claimed to be responsible for at least two of the deaths, and tried to strangle Lynn when she said she was going to marry David instead. A very strange epilogue and unexpected from this author. Of course, it’s impossible for Agatha Christie to write a bad book and this one was interesting almost in spite of itself. Not what I would consider top shelf, but certainly never dull. (Never mentions the title’s connection to Shakespeare until page 202!)


Thin Air
Robert B. Parker
Crime Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
G.P. Putnam Sons, 1995
A Berkley Book
Berkley Publishing Group,
A division of Penguin Group
1996



This is another in a series of books by this author, featuring hard-boiled Boston private investigator Spenser and some his usual entourage from previous books. This story starts in an unusual way, from the victim’s viewpoint, as Lisa St. Claire has been abducted (we find out later) by an old boyfriend named Luis. It turns out that this is Lt. Belson’s second wife, and he asks Spenser about it, not to help locate her, but because Spenser had a similar situation when Susan left him (see “Valediction” and “A Catskill Eagle”) although under admittedly different circumstances. Spenser naturally tries to help find her anyway, which proves to be more difficult than expected, since Belson apparently knew nothing about her when they got married. In a stylistic departure for this series, the regular chapters are interspersed with chapters told from Lisa’s situation, where she is being held captive by Luis. Then Belson gets shot, and while he’s in ICU, Spenser figures he’d better look for Lisa in earnest. We have reason to suspect Luis is involved, when he tells Lisa not to expect her husband to rescue her. As part of his investigation, Spenser interviews people at the local radio station where Lisa worked, and at Merrimack College where she took night courses. One of her friends tips him off to Luis Deleon, Lisa’s old boyfriend, so he goes to the Proctor police to see if they have a rap sheet on the guy. The local police are not cooperative (they never are in these books) but point him in the direction of Freddie Santiago, the local kingpin, and the gangs in the San Juan Hill neighborhood. Meanwhile, in Lisa’s situation, Luis has not harmed her or threatened her, and seems content for them to play “dress up” and pretend to be living out a romantic relationship like a series of beautiful movies. When Capt. Quirk (from previous books) checks Lisa’s fingerprints, they belong to an Angela Richard, who has a record for drugs and prostitution in Los Angeles, and nothing can be found on Lisa St. Claire earlier than 1990. With his usual crime-fighting cohort, Hawk, in Burma, Spenser instead takes Susan with him to California to interview anyone who knew Lisa when she was still Angela Richard. He calls in some favors, and roughs up her ex-pimp, now a movie producer, but doesn’t find out much. Back home, he tracks down her parents (separately) but they have no information to offer. He invites Chollo, a Mexican thug from a previous case in California (see “Stardust”) to come east and help give him some credibility with Freddie Santiago, who shows them where in San Juan Hill is Luis Deleon’s territory, and agrees to find out if Lisa is in there against her will or not. Spenser realizes that it would be in Santiago’s interests to have a bunch of Yankees bust the place up, eliminate Deleon as competition, and leave Santiago looking like the good guy taking over afterward. The local priest tells Spenser that he has been asked to marry Luis and a woman named Angela Richard, in spite of the fact that there is no marriage license and also that Lisa is already married. Chollo infiltrates the compound by telling them he knows an LA mobster who wants Luis to be his liaison on the east coast, and he realizes that with all the fortifications and ammunition in the compound, and also women and children, it will be very difficult to attack without a lot of casualties. But since there hasn’t been any other progress, Spenser and Chollo realize that they have no choice but to go in after Lisa, on whatever pretext, after arranging for Santiago’s gang to act as a diversion at the time. So they pretend that Spenser is representing local gangster Joe Broz (from previous books) when he and Chollo meet with Luis on what he assumes is a business deal. When Santiago’s men start shooting at the buildings, the gang members all head for the windows and start shooting back, leaving Spenser and Chollo to go find where Lisa is being held and sneak her out. Unfortunately, they bump into Luis along the way, as everyone is evacuating the building which has started collapsing, and for Lisa’s sake, Luis makes sure that everyone gets out safely. Once outside, Spenser tries to leave with Lisa and Luis, but Freddie Santiago kills Luis instead, which was all he wanted from the operation in the first place. Late in the book, Luis and Lisa had reached a sort of rapprochement, and because of his background it was easy to start feeling sorry for him, so this outcome was somewhat demoralizing and unsatisfying, compared to how it would have been earlier in the story. The book basically ends right there on that sour note, and it’s a hard feeling to shake off. The ending is unusually disjointed, because it is told twice from two different narratives, which is a plot device that does not improve it in any way. The reunion with Lisa and Frank Belson in the hospital is cursory, and the ersatz epilogue is irrelevant. Of course, it would be impossible for this author to write a bad book, and the Spenser stories are always well-written and interesting, and although formulaic, continue to be a winning formula. This whole story was more tense and gritty than they usually are, and without the camaraderie of Hawk and their patented banter, it was much more sullen, melancholy and even creepy. It does feature Pearl the Wonder Dog, and plenty of descriptive passages about clothing and food, as they all do, but it’s not enough to redeem this from being less than top-shelf Spenser.


Thirteen At Dinner
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Berkley Book
Dodd, Mead & Company
1933



American actress Jane Wilkinson is married to eccentric Lord Edgware, but wishes him out of the way so she can marry the Duke of Merton. She asks Hercule Poirot to meet with him and convince him to step aside, or devise some clever plan to free her of him. He agrees to meet with her husband, and is surprised to discover that far from being opposed to the idea, the Lord said he notified her months ago that he would divorce her, if she would go quietly and with no financial settlement. She receives this news gleefully, although she says she never received his letter. So it comes as a great surprise later when Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard calls on Poirot to inform him that Lady Edgware took a taxi to the Lord’s house, announced herself to the butler, and killed her husband in his library. Poirot can’t help but remark that it seems a little too contrived to be likely, and for her part, the widow claims to have been at a party at the time. Meanwhile, another American actress, Carlotta Adams, famous for her impersonations of Jane Wilkinson, also turns up dead, and conveniently wearing the outfit that Lady Edgware was seen to be wearing the night her husband was killed. Of course, there’s also a ne’er-do-well nephew who inherits the title and estate, who was always asking his uncle for money, and in fact quarreled with him that morning, and has a convenient alibi for the evening. Suddenly the new butler disappears, and Japp is convinced he’s a shady character besides. The plot thickens when it turns out that a number of people were at Lord Edgware’s house at the time of his murder, even though their alibis indicated otherwise, including his daughter, nephew and yet another actor called Bryan Martin. Japp also turns up a letter to Carlotta Adams’ sister in America saying that the nephew would pay her $10,000 to play a joke on his uncle. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Merton calls on Poirot to do anything to prevent her son from marrying Jane Wilkinson. Next murdered is someone from the beginning of the book, Donald Ross, that I don’t even remember. Apparently, a chance remark about Paris raised young Ross’s suspicions, and when he telephoned Poirot later, he was cut down before he could elaborate. Also, Poirot discovers that Carlotta’s letter was tampered with, and did not actually implicate Edgware’s nephew in its original form. Finally, in true detective fiction fashion, Poirot calls everyone together and explains everything. It turns out that Lady Edgware hired Carlotta Adams NOT to impersonate her at Lord Edgware’s house, but rather, to provide her alibi at the party instead. So they met ahead of time, switched clothes, Lady Edgware killed her husband (she claimed the Duke would never marry her if her husband were still alive, even if they were divorced, because he was very old-fashioned) then they met up again later and switched clothes back. Lady Edgware gave Carlotta a poisoned drink, and figured she was in the clear. She also tampered with the letter to implicate the nephew, and made sure everyone knew that she wished her husband dead, in an effort to make herself too obvious to be a suspect. Apparently she killed Donald Ross because he realized she was not the same person he sat with at the previous party, when Carlotta was being her alibi. And Hercule Poirot was mad at her for trying to use him as a smoke-screen, and almost succeeding, and this made him highly indignant. These books are always well-written, and this one actually makes more sense than a lot of them. Sometimes there are so many red herrings and sub-plots that when the time comes to unravel everything at the end, it ends up making less sense than before it started. Unfortunately, none of the characters are interesting, or likable, with the exception of course of Poirot and his adorable assistant, Hastings, who is thick as a plank and twice as dense. But the plot was a notch above average, and it was lively and engaging throughout.


This Is My God
Herman Wouk
Reference
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Simon & Schuster
1959



This is an interesting and very readable book about Judaism. The author is an excellent novelist (“The Caine Mutiny,” “Youngblood Hawke,” “War & Remembrance,” “Winds of War,” among many others) and here he manages to keep his writing informative without being dull. He covers the history of the Jews, the Torah and Talmud, aspects of worship, festivals and symbolism, plus the law in its pure form, as well as everyday applications. More entertaining than you would expect, interesting throughout, well-written as all his books, and you even manage to learn something along the way.


This Pleasant Lea
Anne Crone
Drama
Fiction
Rating 2
Charles Scribners Sons
1951



The Storey family lives in genteel poverty in the tiny farm community of Derry Gawley, Ireland, following Mr. Storey’s untimely death. Son Frank is a little too irresponsible for farm work, while industrious Faith works as a teacher’s assistant, and poor young Milly is often held out of school in order to work around the house. When it is revealed that Frank committed an indiscretion with a neighbor lass, the family is as appalled by the moral considerations as they are by the financial consequences. Frank decides to marry the injured party instead of paying her off, in spite of her family’s lower social standing, but there’s no room (or welcome) for her at his family’s farm, so they live apart. In a sincere attempt to help the family, kind neighbor Mark Liddell offers for Faith, thinking that she and her family could move to his larger farm and houses, leaving Frank and his new wife to the Storey’s farm alone. But Faith refuses him on the grounds that she does not love him, in spite of his most earnest entreaties. Afterwards, while running an errand into town for her brother, she meets Antony Fletcher, son of the local solicitor, and they are strangely attracted to each other. Meanwhile, Alison Greenlees, daughter of the local squire, has already set her cap for Antony, a match that would meet with the approval of both families. Although the book draws a quaint and picturesque rendering of Irish country life, and the characters are all genuine and likable for the most part, though drawn with warts and all, it is one of the most dense and static books I have ever slogged through. It has pages upon pages upon pages of exposition, that while interesting and charming in its own way, entirely chokes off any possible progress in the story, until you just want to give it up as a lost cause. As much as you care for the characters and want to know what happens to them, it’s almost not worth the effort of plowing through hundreds of pages clogged with thick text, to tell what is essentially a simple slice-of-life tale. It goes without saying that Antony’s family wholeheartedly disapproves of his affection for Faith, with her family’s lack of status and all. Then Antony’s father has a nearly fatal stroke, and he must step in and carry on his father’s work. Faith decides they should separate until his family is prepared to accept her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Storey moves out of her house so Frank and his new wife can live there, and she and her daughters move into a spare building on Mark Liddell’s property. But after the baby is born, the new wife runs off with a tradesman, leaving Frank to drown his sorrows in liquor, and his mother to care for the baby Lily. One day in town, Frank bumps into his estranged wife and they come to blows – he gets arrested and eventually the farm is auctioned off to settle his debts. Almost imperceptibly, Antony begins to come around to his parent’s opinion that he could not marry into this family, and he finds Alison Greenlees’ attention to be a welcome comfort. Meanwhile, Mark Liddell buys the Storey farm at auction with the intent of restoring the family to it somehow, and Faith can’t help but feel that he has been more than their truest friend. Almost without realizing it, Antony proposes to Alison and both families are happy. Later, Faith takes the news of their marriage hard, but stoically as usual. But being very dissimilar people, Antony and Alison soon find themselves at odds, making themselves and everyone around them miserable. Poor unhappy Alison catches a chill and dies, and her father soon after, from losing her. Much later, when Antony returns to Faith and begs her to take him back, she tells him that she could never feel about him the same way as before, since her devotion to him remained uniformly true while his was inconstant. In the end, she winds up where she started and accepts Mark Liddell with more appreciation than she could have known before. This book has absolutely no artifice in it – the story is hopelessly old-fashioned and told in an old-fashioned way. It could never pretend to be a new story masquerading as a period piece, because it glories in all of the creaks and creepings of its out-moded style. It’s amazing that anyone ever wanted to read this type of ponderous prose, much less encourage them to read more of it. I can’t help thinking of Warner Baxter telling Ruby Keeler in “42nd Street” – “You’re going out there a Nobody, but you’ve got to come back a Star!” – while the narrator wonders if people really used to talk like that. The writing style is so dull and oppressive that it almost defies you to develop any interest in the story, which seems to alternate wildly between melodramatic pathos and hard-hearted cynicism. A very sweet and sentimental ending would have done much to rescue it, but the ending was of a piece from what went before, and was too abrupt and unsatisfying. It seems to be well-meaning, and written with intelligence and technical ability, but ultimately disappointing.


Those Endearing Young Charms
Marion Chesney
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Fawcett Crest / Ballantine Books
1986



The social climbing Ansteys refuse the suit of the penniless Captain Tracey for their oldest daughter, Mary. Later when he becomes Earl of Devenham, of course they welcome him back with open arms and set a wedding date. But in the meantime, Mary and the local Vicar have fallen in love, although Mary determines to marry the Earl anyway to please her family. But her younger sister Emily will have none of it, so she disguises herself as Mary, and marries the Earl herself. The Earl tries to put the best face on it, since he realized he and Mary didn’t suit anyway. Emily pretends to be happy to her family, but she lives in fear of the Earl’s temper. She becomes even more miserable when he brings her to London, where everyone is gossiping about his former mistress. She finally flees in broken-hearted terror back to her family, consoling herself with her pitiful stray kitten for company. But the kitten escapes and is tormented by the local brutish youths; fortunately the Earl rescues it, and this is what finally brings them together. A bit long-winded but good of this type.


Through Charley’s Door
Emily Kimbrough
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 3
Harper & Brothers
1952

This author of lively and amiable travelogues now tries her hand at the personal histories of people like herself who worked at Marshall Field & Company, the premier department store in Chicago for decades. Charley was the estimable doorman for the entrance at 28 Washington Street, favored by “the carriage trade,” and known and revered throughout the city. He was not only a wealth of information and knew every customer’s name, but could also be counted on to relay messages, deliver packages, and handle any other matters that might arise. A friend gives Emily an introduction to Achsah Gardner in the Advertising Bureau, and despite her usual gaffes that often leave onlookers agog in speechless bewilderment, she begins working at the store with the only qualification that she can type “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.” Little by little, she learns the ropes at the store, and even meets Mr. Simpson, the President, turning their meeting into no more than the usual disaster for her. Her conversations with co-workers, and their recollections and anecdotes about the store, are fascinating and wonderful. Her first attempts at writing ad copy are uniformly met with skepticism and outright hostility, combining as they did, peculiar elements of the whimsical and arcane, very far from a Marshall Field trademark by all accounts. Next up is what should be a standard-issue tale of her misadventures with Payroll, where they neglected to pay her for a month (prompting her to consider resigning, because her father could not afford to continue supporting her as a working girl) but which had an ironic twist that made it unsettling rather than funny. After that is a truly depressing episode about how working for a living had distanced her from her former society friends, and told from a perspective of 25 years later, still seems achingly sad. Even her story about finally meeting the dreaded barracuda of the Book Section, Marcella Hahner, is more chilling than funny. Although it does include a cute aside about an up-and-coming author who would write his name in books that he lent to friends, so they would be sure to return them; of course, this tactic backfired once he became famous and everyone kept the books because they had his name in them. Coming as a big surprise to even her closest friends and staunchest supporters, Emily is given charge of the Magazine Division (Fashions of the Hour) when Achsah Gardner is promoted to another position. This leads to some interesting reminiscences about peculiarities that had occurred over the years, but were considered too indecorous to be included in any of the store publicity, and which were more peculiar than amusing. Showing a little more spark is a tale about the doughty Marcella Hahner, taking on the new Victrola Department, placed near her treasured books, and vanquishing it with no survivors. This author is not famous for killing off her characters, so it comes as an unwelcome surprise when her dear and spunky mother breathes her last. (Although it’s not really a surprise when Achsah Gardner later marries her father.) After four years at the store, she gets lured away by Ladies Home Journal, as the fashion editor of their Paris Bureau. She returns 25 years later to write this book, and of course, so much has changed so it’s very bittersweet. This was a small and niche sort of book compared to her usual wide-ranging travelogues, which are chockful of different people and events, and often wildly hilarious. It was nice enough in a quiet way, and somewhat interesting, but it never caught fire or leapt off the page at any point. Alternately suffused with awkwardness or melancholy (perhaps owing to the memory of her mother’s passing at the same time) it never hits its stride in a cohesive and engaging style that beckons you in and makes you feel welcome and happy. Of interest only to the most die-hard fans, but disappointing overall.


Thursday’s Child
Barbara Hazard
Romance
Fiction
Rating 2
Fawcett Crest / Ballantine Books
1995



Celia Anders, an orphan who lives with her scholarly uncle in London, is invited to a house party at Castle Wentworth in the country by the dowager Duchess, along with a horde of other visitors. These include the dowager’s dashing godson, William, fourth Viscount Drummond, as well as the young widow Dawkins and her sulky daughter, Charity. Celia finds the house party made up of a ragtag collection, some pleasant and well-mannered people, but also bores, social climbers and malcontents. One day she inadvertently barges in on Drummond in his bedroom and he delights in teasing her afterward. The more aloof she tries to be, the more he maneuvers to be near her, and one day on a bridle path, he kisses her. In her attempts to flee his unwanted attentions, she sprains her ankle and he carries her back to her room. Meanwhile, bratty Charity has been amusing herself by spying on everyone and spreading tales, to the distress of some and the delight of others. Apparently the dowager knows something unsavory about Celia’s past, so she forbids Drummond to trifle with her, either as a lark or in earnest. Charity branches out by slipping rat poison to the Butler, tripping a valet on the stairs and pinching the dowager’s ruby necklace to plant in one of the guest’s rooms as incriminating evidence. Drummond begins to suspect her when she attempts to spill his secret in a game of hide-and-seek played for a valuable prize. So she plays her trump card and suddenly the whole castle is agog to find out that Celia’s parents were a disreputable pair of poor and unmarried Gypsies. It’s not true of course, finally her devoted uncle tells her the story of her well-born mother eloping with the footman, but the damage has been done. Drummond is determined to marry her anyway, but both Celia and the dowager see that he’s only doing it to be chivalrous. When Drummond tires of Charity’s shenanigans, he tricks her into a trap that could only be considered hopelessly ludicrous by even the most indulgent reader. But it serves the purpose, as the dowager sends them packing instantly. After Celia rejects Drummond’s suit, the dowager concocts an imaginary wealthy American father for her, so she can be accepted into society, but Celia will have none of it. Finally Drummond proposes to her in the middle of a play that the house party has been practicing, in front of everyone from miles around. She finally agrees to marry him, although the ending is disjointed and desultory after the extremely lame denouement with Charity. Well-written with mostly likable characters, the story lacks interest or drama.. The people are so generally mild, good or bad, and the things they do are so dull as to be very unengaging. Even the illicit romance of Celia and Drummond refuses to throw off any sparks, and the ending is one enormous wet blanket thrown over any hope of romance or excitement. Nice enough of this type but disappointing overall.


To Glory We Steer
Alexander Kent
Historical Drama
Fiction
Rating 3
McBooks Press Inc.
1998
(Hutchinson, UK - 1968)


This is another in a series of British naval adventures by this author, which are fiction but based on actual events, and featuring Richard Bolitho, now a captain. This story begins in 1782 in Portsmouth, with Bolitho just returned from the West Indies on the Sparrow, and hoping to enjoy some time at home in Falmouth, but he is summoned by Admiral Langford (his first captain as a rank midshipman) and surprised to be given command of a dazzling new frigate, Phalarope, which had to be returned from the war effort due to a near mutiny, and the captain being removed for incompetence. The short-handed crew is an emotional powder-keg, and with orders to sail back to the West Indies to join Samuel Hood’s squadron, Bolitho knows he has his work cut out for him. He finds the crew surly, silent or scared, and realizes that he must be stern and vigilant, because he suspects (and we know) that the treachery goes all the way to the highest level. Fortunately this ship, like the ones before it, comes with the massive Stockdale, who has protected him since the beginning, and he’s a welcome sight now. They stop first in Falmouth to pick up more crew, and since it is Bolitho’s family home, he knows where to find their hiding places. A combination of bad weather, unhappy veterans and terrified newcomers causes unrest in the ranks, which First Lieutenant Vibart encourages for his own purposes. They are approached by a frigate identifying itself as a British ship with dispatches for them, but it turns out to be an American privateer instead, and only good strategy keeps the inexperienced crew from having the ship shot out from underneath them. They finally reach Antigua, but the Admiral in charge sends them right back out again, as if afraid his unhappy crew might contaminate the rest of the fleet, and also gives them a bunch of malcontents on top of that, to get them out of their own hair. These’s no one else in sight when Phalarope happens on a small Spanish lugger moving supplies for their French allies, and Bolitho uses this information for a daring raid on the French anchorage at Mola Island, burning two of their ships, and pitching their battery guns over the cliff. Unfortunately for Bolitho, not everyone involved in the mission was to be trusted, and they fled back to the ship, stranding him and a small group of sailors to be taken prisoner by the American privateer Andiron. The new captain turns out to be his estranged older brother Hugh, who decides to wait at anchor and hope that Phalarope walks into his trap. On board, they believe Bolitho is dead, so Vibart and Okes take over command, to the great detriment of everyone. Fortunately, Stockdale was captured with Bolitho, and manages to spring the captives, and their small party sabotages the ship so it runs aground and sinks. They just barely escape over the side, and bump right into Herrick from the Phalarope’s ill-planned mission to attack the Andiron. Later, even the nasty Admiral has to admit that Bolitho has restored the Navy’s faith in Phalarope, but a pocket of unhappy sailors threatens the security of his accomplishments. Next the fresh water casks are contaminated, making it necessary to head for a small island in hopes of finding more water. On the way, the odious purser is murdered, and the conspirators frame John Allday for the crime, although Bolitho and Herrick both have their doubts. While the reliable part of the crew is ashore getting fresh water, the misfits launch their mutiny by killing Vibart who had been left in charge, but quick thinking by John Allday and some of the loyal sailors manages to turn the tide and quell the mutiny with minimal loss of life. Bolitho gains new respect for John Allday, who risked his own life to rout the mutiny and warn of enemy ships nearby. They rescue a tiny British brig attempting to report on French troop movements, and then their small convoy takes on a scouting party of larger French ships, and win the day only through superior strategy, although with massive damage and huge amount of casualties. These run from the top all the way down, and included poor midshipman Maynard, Captain Rennie of the Marines, the sailing master Proby and even the behemoth Stockdale, who died protecting Bolitho as he had from the beginning. Of course, it’s a byword of this series not to get attached to any character, no matter how central they may seem, because any moment might be their last. The story ends right there, with the bulk of the British fleet taking on the bulk of the French fleet in what became known as the Battle of the Saintes, and signaled the end of the war. There’s a very satisfying epilogue where Herrick visits Bolitho at home in Falmouth, and finds out his father has died, and also his black-sheep older brother, although not before he returns his father’s sword that he had confiscated on the Andiron. Herrick finds that Bolitho has even hired Allday and Ferguson (and his wife) from the Phalarope to help around the house, and also to have them nearby if the time comes that he gets another ship. (It will.) The book ends there on a cozy note. This is a rather unusual entry in this series, since there are no missions to speak of except routine patrols, and practically no battles, so most of the plot is taken up with the psychology and behavior of their own ship and crew, and seems at times tense, maudlin or depressing. It’s impossible for this author to write a bad book, and you genuinely care about the characters, but the whole book seems to have a pall over it that is impossible to shake off, so that even the victories are subdued and bittersweet. Well-written as they all are, in an informal style that seems effortless and engaging. Always interesting and never lags, entertaining throughout, although not as rousing as some others in this series.


Toblethorpe Manor
Carola Dunn
Romance
Fiction
Rating 3
Warner Books / A Warner Communications Company
1981



Richard Carstairs of Toblethorpe Manor, and his friend Lord Anthony Graham, the future Marquis of Hendon, are out riding on the estate when they stumble upon a young woman who has been injured and is unconscious. They carry her back to the house and send for the doctor, and when she briefly regains consciousness, they find that she does not remember who she is. Richard’s impetuous sister Lucy is all agog to set out on her first season in London, but Lady Annabel, their sensible mother doesn’t see how they can leave the young stranger in distress. They begin calling her “Miss Fell,” since they discovered her on Daws Fell. After long days and nights of tender loving care, Miss Fell is finally well enough to go downstairs for meals with the family, rather than having broth in her room. Lady Annabel decides that the best course of action is to bring the mysterious stranger with them to London (as the supposed daughter of an old school friend) and hope to bump into someone who recognizes her, although Richard can’t help but despair of her gentility, out riding alone at night in the snow, and even she wonders how she could have come so far that no one knows her. Miss Fell isn’t well enough to travel with the family when they go to London, so they leave her at home in the care of an imposing spinster aunt. Miss Fell wins over the old battle-axe with her pleasant manner, although since she doesn't know the true circumstances, she has no reason to pity her. The staff is protective of her, and everyone who meets her finds her charming. She discovers that she plays piano and sings beautifully, although she doesn't know why. Meanwhile in London, Lucy meets the dashing Major Bowen back from India, as well as her cousins Jennifer and Edward, plus Harry Graham, the brother of her old friend Lord Anthony. Lady Annabel and Lucy are invited to Almack’s and she soon has no lack of suitors, besides Major Bowen, whom Lord Anthony considers a fortune hunter, and wishes that Lucy thought of himself more as a beau than an age-old family friend. Privately, Bowen and Lucy acknowledge their feelings for each other, although she fears that his humble roots will not meet with Richard's approval. Richard returns to Toblethorpe and finds Miss Fell (now called “Clara” by her friends) much improved, although still easily tired. Their plan to return to London in easy stages falters outside of Huntingdon when the carriage falls into a ditch in a snowstorm. Miss Fell has a bit of a relapse after being out in the cold while the carriage is fixed (and she panicked at the prospect of riding a horse again) and the doctor who examines her in London recommends bed rest, and also suggests a German hypnotist, Dr. Holzkopf, to help restore her memory. After Miss Fell recovers, she has her session with Dr. Holzkopf, but he is unable to hypnotize her, although in a funny aside, he inadvertently hypnotizes Lady Annabel who is sitting behind her. Meanwhile, Richard comes storming back from an unpleasant encounter, which we are led to surmise, involves him forbidding Major Bowen to address his sister, since he considers the Bowen family to be unsuitable relatives. When Lord Anthony finally asks if he may court Lucy, Richard is elated, although the same cannot be said of Lucy. When Miss Fell is well enough to socialize, she is presented to dozens of Lady Annabel's acquaintances, and is discouraged when none of them recognize her. Then she is insulted at the theater by one of Toblethorpe's neighbors, the odious Rossiter, and Richard impetuously proposes to her, so he can protect her from such outrages. Although she appreciates his kindness, she cannot accept, and be even more of a burden than she has been already. We also find out about Richard's heavy-handed treatment of Lucy and Bowen, and while she pretends to acquiesce to his demands, she still manages to skirt around the specifics and do as she pleases.
There is a sort of flashback interlude, where we learn a variety of things that happened with Lucy while she was staying at her Aunt Blanche's residence during the illnesses of Miss Fell and Lady Annabel. While she felt bad about deceiving her brother, she could not allow Major Bowen to ask Richard for her when he had so much else to worry about. She and Bowen have a quarrel when he says he must return to his estate in Northumberland on an urgent matter. (We already know that he is concerned that he hasn't heard from his cousin Rosalind, so anyone could see where this was leading.) Lord Anthony proposes to her, but she turns him down and instead tells him all her troubles, which he is amiable enough to help her with. Since Miss Fell refused his proposal, Richard has been drinking heavily, while she realizes that her feelings for him are so strong that it would be awkward for her to continue staying with the family any longer. She decides that she must leave the Carstairs and make her own living, since it appears that she will never find out who she is. She calls on a local orchestra leader to apply as a pianist, but the interview that he sends her on ends badly, with the patron taking liberties. Major Bowen insists on seeing Richard before he leaves for Northumberland, and arrives at the townhouse just about the same time Miss Fell returns from her dismal interview. They recognize each other instantly, and poor Miss Fell (actually Bowen's cousin Rosalind Stuart) faints clean away. When she is revived, she remembers her cousin Charles, but not any of the Carstairs, and in fact, gets a terrible headache when any of them are around. Bowen explains to the family that after he returned from India, he recently found out that a scheming younger uncle had taken over his estate and was trying to bully Rosalind into marrying a man he owed money to, and when he became violent at her refusal, she ran away and had her accident on the moors. The doctor says she must return to her own home until she and her memory are quite well, and forbids any of the Carstairs to see her for six months. Bowen and Rosalind return to Northumberland and find that their odious uncle has skipped and left the property in a shambles. Rosalind recovers her health, but feels oddly disoriented. After six months, they are invited to Lord Anthony’s estate for hunting, with the plan of meeting up with the Carstairs, who are also invited. Rosalind has made up her mind to enjoy a last fling before settling down with a boring local bachelor, and Anthony’s brother Harry is quick to oblige as a lark. She does not recognize the Carstairs when they arrive, and Richard finds it painfully difficult to treat her as a stranger, and be treated as one in return. The assembled company puts on an amateur theatrical for fun, and Richard and Rosalind quarrel about the irrepressible Harry Graham becoming too familiar with her. When they return to Toblethorpe for the wedding of Bowen and Lucy, they are confronted with the prospect of explaining to everyone who knew her as "Miss Fell," that they must act as if they have never met her before. At Toblethorpe, she sees Mary the maid, and suddenly remembers her time being the mysterious stranger with the Carstairs. Richard finally proposes to her, and it all ends happily. Well-written, but hopelessly long and drawn-out, and way over-plotted for a typical Regency romance. The characters are nice enough, but on the dull side, so they don’t completely engage your interest. Not romantic enough for a real romance, it is entertaining enough but falls short in many areas.


To The Hilt
Dick Francis
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 4
Jove Books / Berkley Publishing Group (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
1996

Alexander Kinloch chooses to live alone in the wilds of Scotland, playing the part of family eccentric, and painting, which pays the bills and then some. He plans to return to London when his mother says his step-father is ill, but instead, he is attacked by thugs who toss him over a cliff, ransack his hut and steal his jeep. After hitch-hiking to London, he finds his step-father Ivan Westering, weak and fatalistic, and he give Alex his power-of-Attorney instead of his scheming daughter Patsy. He also makes Alex an interim director at the family brewery, and the enormous problems (the treasurer absconded with all the money) make Alex think this is what caused his step-father’s collapse. He also learns of two curious items of value, a racehorse named Golden Malt, and the King Alfred chalice, which goes to the winner of the King Alfred Cup, a steeplechase that the brewery sponsors every year for publicity purposes. (The winner actually gets a reproduction of the chalice.) Alex meets with the bank and Margaret Morden, an insolvency practitioner, about short- and long-term steps to save the brewery. His estranged wife Emily helps him hide Golden Malt (she’s the horse trainer) at a friend’s stable. Robert, the current Earl of Kinloch, had spirited away the chalice to keep it safe, and some people believed it had been given to Alex to hide, hence the thugs who roughed him up. Alex hires a private detective to see if Patsy and her sneaky husband Surtees had anything to do with it. Meanwhile, Patsy has been kicking up a ruckus with the lawyer and bank and Desmond Finch at the brewery about getting the Power-of-Attorney away from Alex, but Ivan sticks by his guns. The Earl has the chalice appraised by an antiquarian, who tells him that it is merely a Victorian-era reproduction, not a true 9th century treasure from King Alfred. Unlike the Honor of the Kinlochs, a golden hilt from a ceremonial sword presented to the Earl by (Bonnie) Prince Charles Edward in the 1700's, and which had already been hidden in Alex’s hut for safe-keeping. Margaret gets the creditors to agree to terms, although very hard terms, and include giving up the horse and chalice if necessary. Next, the embezzling treasurer turns up dead (two weeks already) with no apparent cause. Then Golden Malt escapes from his hiding place, and Patsy gets within a hair-breadth of catching him, before Alex snatches him out from under her nose at the last minute. Just when everything seems to be under control, Ivan suddenly drops dead, bringing Patsy into the ascendancy, and making things very inconvenient for everyone. Fortunately, Ivan had added a codicil to his will naming Alex co-executor, so in spite of Patsy’s objections, he still has a say in the proceedings. At the funeral, a neighbor mentions that Ivan had been outside in his pajamas pulling through the trash in a panic, just before he died. Alex figures out that he had gotten a call from the late treasurer’s sister, who wanted to give him some of her brother’s papers. He realizes this would be the critical “paper trail” to find the missing funds, so he hurries out to pick them up, and also realizes that he has to hide his mother, his wife and the treasurer’s sister to prevent them being used as hostages to bargain for information. Against his better judgment, Alex accepts an invitation to Patsy’s house for a friendly discussion, and even though he brings along his private detective (in disguise) to protect him, he still gets jumped by the same four thugs, this time at the direction of Oliver, the nasty lawyer. When he won’t tell them where to find the horse, the chalice, the hilt or the paper trail, they beat hum up and also burn him, until the P.I. finally brings the Police to his rescue. Alex helps the Police link the four thugs to his attack in Scotland, as well as the murder of the treasurer, neatly implicating nasty Oliver Grantchester. They even discover Alex’s stolen property in his possession, including some paintings that Alex was glad to get back. Unfortunately, even with the magic list, the bank experts can’t find the missing money, and Alex tries hard to accept the fact that he suffered and bled for nothing. Then they have the steeplechase, and Golden Malt miraculously wins, to the unbridled delirium of all. Even better, Patsy apologizes to Alex after she realizes how she had been led astray by people only pretending to have her best interests at heart. He returns to his hut to find D. Lang, the antiquarian, and a bunch of flunkies with metal detectors intent on finding the hilt. (There is some contention between the Earl and the government over who is the hilt’s rightful owner.) When he shows her a portrait he has painted of her, she is overcome and leaves without further ado. Finally, the good news comes from South America (the auditor went there in person after electronic inquiries failed) that the brewery’s millions had been rescued. The story just sort of ends there, although satisfactorily, so it doesn’t seem really precipitous. This is a crackerjack tale that rushes along head first right from the opening page, up to the unmasking of Oliver as the villain. After that, it has a slow and gentle denouement, almost an epilogue, wrapping things up neatly and settling accounts. It would have gotten a higher rating from me except for the melancholy of a Scottish lament that seems to hover over the story like a cloud. It wasn’t truly sad, but it could never shake off a sense of wistfulness. Very well-written in a mostly lively and engaging style, with characters that were simply drawn, but powerfully real. Not all were likable, but they were all genuine, and you cared what happened to them. I admit that I really believed that the treasurer had been set up as the fall guy in the scheme, but apparently he and Oliver cooked this up together, and at the last minute, the treasurer tried to double-cross him, but died trying. The story moves at quite a clip and never lags, and it’s easy to see why the author’s other books of this type are so popular and he is so prolific. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.


Towards Zero
Agatha Christie
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 4
Dodd, Mead
1944


Noted criminologist Mr. Treves makes the point that murder mysteries always begin with the murder, and then backtrack to explain how and why it happened. His opinion is that a true murder mystery begins with many diverse and unrelated events, circumstances and coincidences that all add up to murder at the end, hurtling towards zero. That’s how this book is written, in short unconnected chapters that each seem to be going their own way, but actually each is just another brick in the path leading to murder. The elements gather at Gull’s Point, where first Mr. Treves dies of an apparent heart attack, and then Lady Tressilian is murdered. It turns out to be Nevile Strange, staying there with his wife and ex-wife, whose plan was to frame his ex-wife for the crime. With a lot of determination and happy coincidences, Supt. Battle of Scotland Yard gets his man. And Nevile’s ex-wife gets hers as well, in a pleasant happy ending.


Tracy and Hepburn
Garson Kanin
Biography
Non-Fiction
Rating 4
Viking Press
1971



A lively and anecdotal history of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn by their intimate friend, Garson Kanin. He is an excellent writer and turns his vignettes into living, breathing people. Although he shares many private moments with them(along with his wife, actress Ruth Gordon) there is nothing salacious about the book. It is a love letter to an idol from a grateful subject. It’s fast-paced, informal and amusing, with a few laugh-out-loud stories.


The Trouble With A Small Raise
Trella Crespi
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 2
Zebra Books / Kensington Publishing
1991



Simona Griffo works at the HH&H Advertising Agency in New York City, and one day she goes in early to work to catch her boss alone, and ask him for a raise. But she finds him dead in his office instead. Fred was someone who oozed charm, but also had a lot of enemies. The Police investigators, Garcia and Greenhouse, arrive and the owner, Mr. Harland, asks Simona to assist them in every possible way. They soon learn that Fred died of cyanide poisoning, and in fact, they discover a tampered bottle of cold pills that had been missing from the first aid cabinet, which is locked and maintained by Mattie Washington in the reception area. Once the detectives start questioning everyone, Simona finds out that Fred died on Sunday, not Monday, so even if she had come in earlier in the morning, she could not have prevented what happened. But she also realizes that she has no alibi on that weekend, so the following weekend, she joins Gregory, the illustrator, at his cottage in the country. He invites another couple from work, so it’s all very friendly but not romantic. Suddenly she remembers that when she saw Fred’s body on Monday, he wasn’t wearing his HH&H 10-year signet ring, which he always wore. When she brings this to the attention of the detectives, she is non-plussed to discover that they found Fred’s ring in her desk! They don’t much consider her a suspect, but they don’t reveal much about how the investigation is going. Everyone is surprised when they arrest Mattie Washington, who appears to have no motive, although Fred fired her nephew from HH&H, and had him arrested for drug dealing. Later, they release her. Just as everyone is getting ready to shoot the biggest ads for their biggest client, the Police arrest Bertrand, the account representative. Simona discovers that Bertrand and the client, Mr. Janick, are lovers, and also that Fred was using that information against Bertrand and to his advantage. The Police also discovered all this, because the doorman caught a young man who he assumed to be a thief, but turned out to be an employee taking an incriminating letter with the details out of Fred’s belongings. Next, Mr. Janick sues the agency over a sample bottle of their new perfume, which he entrusted to Fred, and which has since gotten lost – he also threatens to pull his business from them if the bottle isn’t found. Finally Simona and detective Greenhouse, who she has a crush on, have a romantic weekend together. She promises to him that she will solve the case by Monday, and she arranges for all the principle characters to meet in Fred’s office Monday morning. She doesn’t tell him who she suspects, which gives the murderer one more chance to shut her up, which is attempted by pushing her in front of an oncoming bus. But it doesn’t work, and on Monday morning, it turns out to be Fred’s perky secretary, Jenny (why is it always the secretary!) who pined after Fred for years, but finally snapped when Fred planned to marry another woman at the agency. She knew Fred was allergic to the new perfume, so she made sure to spill some on him, and then offer him the tainted pills. The writing is workmanlike, but the plot is all over the place with irrelevant tangents, red herrings and unresolved sub-plots. All of which wouldn’t matter it it was at all interesting (which it’s not) or if there were any likable characters (which there aren’t) to compensate for the weak story. Everyone in the book is either obnoxious or weird, or else they’re completely non-descript, or so inconsistent that you can’t get a handle on them. Apparently this Simona Griffo appears in other books, but you can’t believe that anyone would want to read any more of these horrible, boring and distasteful stories.


Two Points For Murder
D.B. Borton
Mystery
Fiction
Rating 3
Berkley Books
1993



Cat Caliban is a 60-year-old widow and mother of three grown children, who decides to try her hand at amateur sleuthing, since as she says, mothers are naturally suspicious. This is the second in a series of mysteries by this author, so first we are introduced to some of the characters in Cat’s orbit from the first book. It all begins innocently enough when she is “retained” by a neighborhood youngster to find his missing kitten. Which she does, but she also inadvertently discovers a cryptic notebook used by a local basketball hero from the nearby high school, who was recently murdered. Before that, another member of the team had died of heart disease, which in retrospect, Cat finds to be a little too much of a coincidence. In a lot of ways, Cat is very reminiscent of Elizabeth MacPherson, another series (by Sharyn McCrumb) featuring an amateur sleuth, perhaps a little more hard-boiled, but with that same sardonic and wise-cracking skewed view of life. As with most amateur sleuths, the victim’s family is happy and grateful.for any additional help on the case, especially when the Police investigation doesn’t seem to be making any progress. But everyone else from the Police to residents to the high school to the team, uniformly resents the interloper and refuses to cooperate. Although she doesn’t seem to be making any headway, it doesn’t take long before someone takes a few pot-shots at her, outside of her own apartment building. The plot thickens when another team member disappears, ostensibly to stay with his mother out of state, but there is no proof of that. Then someone snatches Cat’s grandson out from under her nose at a basketball game, as a warning to drop her investigation, and although he is returned safely, it gives all of them pause. In the end, they have one of those “let’s get everyone together in the same room and smoke out the culprit” types of scenarios, which I think is a kind of precious conceit for an amateur sleuth, but there you have it. It turns out that the whole team was on steroids provided by a team hanger-on who stole prescription pads and forged the doctor’s signature. When Juky, the original victim (remember him?) finds out, he threatens to expose them, so the forger kills him and forces the doctor’s son (the one who disappeared) into helping him. Then the doctor realizes that the forger must have also killed his supposedly disappeared son, so he kills him, although the whole team bands together to provide the good doctor with an air-tight alibi. Anyway, that’s apparently what happened, because it’s one of those books where they keep information from you all along, so that at the end, they have to stuff a lot of things at you all at once to explain everything in a big fat hurry – and as is so often the case, it simply doesn’t hold together and make any sense, and eventually collapses under its own weight. The book is written in a lively and entertaining way, and the characters are mostly interesting, if tart. The story keeps your interest throughout and doesn’t lag, although the ending falls apart badly, and is a sorry let-down after a rambunctious ride.