I had a busy week with lots of appointments – car, doctor, dentist. And, now I’m settled in just in case we get bad weather this weekend. What about you? What have you been doing? How’s your weather?
And, before we jump into books today, just a reminder to stop back tomorrow when our friend Kaye Wilkinson Barley will tell us about her “Favorite Books of 2024”.
I’m reading a fun book right now, How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel by Kate Jackson.” What would you do if you found yourself in the world of the classic crime novel? How would you avoid being framed for murder – or evade an untimely demise? Let classic crime expert Kate Jackson give you the tools to survive the golden age murder mystery. From dinner parties to detective interrogations, you’ll need to know how to keep your wits about you in a world of red herrings, hidden identities and one too many suspicious butlers…
Complete with original illustrations by Joanna Lisowiec, this insightful parody of the genre takes survival tips from an international cast of crime-writers; Craig Rice (USA), Ngaio Marsh (New Zealand), Augusto de Angelis (Italy), Sheila Pim (Ireland), Sébastien Japrisot (France), and Maria Lang (Sweden), as well as a whole host of British Library Crime Classics authors, of course.”
If you’re a fan of traditional crime novels, including ones by Agatha Christie, you might find this one fun as it tells you what modes of transportation to avoid (everything), what rooms in your mansion to avoid, and links to all kinds of mysteries and victims who avoided all these survival tips at their own peril.
What about you? What are you reading this week?
Glen and I both got dismissed from jury duty last week. He only had to return for half a day until they completed filling the jury box. They can call us again in one year but we hope it doesn’t happen that soon.
We are expecting to have rain tonight and through all of Thursday. The temperatures have been cold for here, but not compared other places in the country. Today it was in the low 50s.
Last week I read FALL FROM GRACE by L.R. Wright. Wright is one of my favorite Canadian authors. This was the fourth in a series, published in 1991. The series character is Karl Alberg, a staff sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. The setting is beautiful. Her writing puts the emphasis on character studies; thus the mystery story seems less important. I am sure some readers don’t care for that but I am fine with that approach.
Glen finished reading HOME: AMERICAN WRITERS REMEMBER ROOMS OF THEIR OWN, edited by Sharon Sloan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer. He liked it a lot. Now he is reading UNDER ALIEN SKIES: A SIGHTSEER’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE by Philip Plait.
How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel does sound like a lot of fun Lesa, so it’s gone onto my list.
It’s been delightfully colder than normal here for three weeks in a row, with early morning temperatures of -9 C (around 15.8 F). I so love walking in the cold!
David and I have been making plans for a four-day trip to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) next week. Our three children and spouses got together and gave us a gift for our upcoming 50th Anniversary – gift cards to all our favourite haunts in Victoria. Two bookstores, a Thai restaurant, afternoon tea at the Abkhazi Gardens teahouse, and to the Dutch Bakery and Cafe, the cost of the ferry to and from Victoria, and the cost of a hotel. Such a thoughtful gift.
They had wanted to have a party for us and invite family and friends but knew I wouldn’t really enjoy such a thing and so they came up with this idea instead. Our anniversary isn’t until March but for various reasons it worked out better to go next week rather than wait till March.
Only one book read this week:
AN EXCELLENT THING IN A WOMAN by Allison Montclair
This is the 7th book in the Sparks and Bainbridge series. It would be better to read the series from the beginning (The Right Sort of Man is the first book) so that you can appreciate the complexity of how the main characters got to where they are now in their lives – the revelations from past books in the series will have you fully committed to Iris and Gwen, and each new book tells us a bit more about them and we grow to love them all the more. The previous book ended on a cliffhanger, the answer to which is revealed on the very first page of this book.
The series is set in post-WWII London, when memories of the war are still quite fresh in everyone’s minds. Iris and Gwen run a marriage bureau in an effort to bring happiness to as many people as possible. Somehow or other they always end up being involved in a murder case. In this outing, a French dancer who is in town for the filming of a show bursts through their office door, says she cannot go back to Paris and demands that they find her a husband in just over a week. Not long after her visit she is discovered murdered. Not only that but Gwen’s beau, an aspiring playwright but currently working as a stage hand at the fledgling BBC television studios is accused of the murder. There is no choice now but for Iris and Gwen to get involved.
This book has a bit of a complicated story line, involving a dance troupe from Paris, two murders, various characters’ connections to the war, all woven around the filming of a variety show for television. There is a lot detailed information about the early days of television of how shows were produced, which was interesting but I felt it got in the way of the story sometimes and slowed down the narrative somewhat in the middle of the book. However, the last quarter of the story was great.
I will always read a Sparks and Bainbridge book and am already looking forward to the next one as it seemed like this one was setting up possible future adventures.
Last week I said I’d think about a few books I’ve read by Canadian authors or stories set in Canada for Tracy (and Rosemary), so here is said list:
– A KILLER IN KING’S COVE by Iona Whishaw (first in the excellent Lane Winslow mystery series set in British Columbia)
– AND THEN THERE WERE NUNS by Jane Christmas (an account of her entry into a convent to see if she was meant to be a nun)
– WAR WIDOW by Tara Moss (first in the Billie Walker mystery series – very very good)
– DARK AUGUST by Katie Tallo (first in the Gus Monet series)
– NEW GIRL IN LITTLE COVE by Damhnait Monaghan (Rachel starts a new life as a teacher in a tiny fishing village in Newfoundland – a fish out of water story)
– BLUEBIRD by Genevieve Graham (almost as good as The Secret Keeper)
– THE PARIS APARTMENT by Kelly Bowen (excellent book)
I enjoyed all the above books.
It’s been fairly nice, but a bit chilly out. It’s supposed to rain tonight. I certainly hope so.
I went to a SuperBowl Party. I felt like I travelled back in time to when the Broncos and The Bills got blown out every year. I was as surprised as anyone. Then today I read some referees got fired for being involved with gambling, just as everybody suspected. Cheaters never prosper.
This week I read:
Choice to Kill by Robert W. Stephens; A casual private eye in Hawaii is planning his wedding. Then he is surrounded by dysfunctional relationships that make marriage look frightening indeed. Of course, there’s a murder, but that’s not the scary thing about this novel.
Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle; There’s somebody burning down coffee shops in New York City, and a couple of dead bodies as a result. Our sleuths investigate, and and find the heat is on.
Cannon’s Law by Dennis Archer; A cowboy starts a cattle drive on the spur of the moment, and finds himself facing some outlaws, and the usual girl. Pretty average.
Rise of the Fury by Clint Hollingsworth; The title has nothing to do with the story. An assassin screws up a hit. The usual shadowy organization she works for gives her a chance to prove herself, and she decides to off Mac Crow, bounty hunter, and general doofus. This is actually much better than I can make the cliched premise sound, and is one of the better Men’s Adventure series going, only the author isn’t very prolific.
Crawlers: A Conclusive Casebook by Nathan Brislin; A collection of sightings of the newest fashionable cryptid, The Pale Crawler. These look sort of like alien grays, only they crawl around on all fours, and seem vaguely threatening, but never actually attack anyone who sees one. I’m skeptical.
Heathcliff and The Good Life by George Gately; The second most famous orange cat with black stripes has his Sunday strips collected in this one. Heathcliff is one strange strip. His 80’s cartoon doesn’t even approach the zaniness of the actual comic.
Blood in the Water by Julien Rapp; Derrick Dreadlow’s partner and soon to be sister in law is arrested for murder, and he soon gets suspended from the force himself. He still works the cases, and gets into a side business. His wife makes an art showing. There’s some vaguely menacing mob stuff, but no Wo Fat, dangit. I actually picture Dreadlow as looking like Riptide vintage Jake Penny.
Seven books read in a single week! I don’t even know how that’s possible. I’m quite a slow reader – the most I can read in a week is two books. My goodness; I’m going to have to pick up the pace a little bit.
Lindy,
It’s not a contest. Don’t pressure yourself like that. Enjoy your reading at your own pace.
How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel sounds exactly like something I need to read.
I’m hearing that it is raining in other parts of LA, but I haven’t seen it yet. But we are supposed to get about 2 inches on Thursday. While we need it, all at once like this could cause problems, especially in the recent fire areas. On the other hand, they are letting us work from home on Thursday because of the rain. Not complaining about that at all.
On the reading front, I’m aiming to finish THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB by Robert Thorogood. I’d bought the book not too long before I learned of the adaptation that was on PBS in the fall. I watched it and enjoyed it. It’s fairly faithful to the book, but I’m enjoying the book even though I remember how things come together at the end. I was a bit worried that would make me impatient, but it hasn’t happened.