Book Reviews – Page 112 – Carol's Notebook

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

October 15, 2019October 16, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

Up until a few years ago, I was an insurance agent, but not like Walter Huff. Huff is good at his job, hard-working, and knows the insurance business inside-out. Then he meets a married woman who he falls for immediately. Her name is Phyllis and she has a thought, not even a plan, just a thought of what she would like to do about her husband. We don't realize at the time, but Phyllis knows exactly what she's doing, exactly what she's suggesting, and really has no qualms and is perfectly capable of holding up under pressure. She is not a nice girl, no matter how she seems at first. It doesn't take Huff long to come up with full-blown plan. They'll kill the husband and they'll get away with the insurance money. He has been in the insurance game for a long time and he knows about every angle ever thought up by anyone to try and pull one over...

A Better Man by Louise Penny

October 11, 2019October 11, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

With A Better Man, Penny is back to the kind of mystery I enjoy, the small, personal mystery where the fate of Canada is not hanging on the outcome, which I was happy about. When the stories are too big, too political, it makes me think maybe I should step away from the series, but then one like this brings me back. It starts as a missing person case, but quickly changes to a murder investigation, all while the waters are rising around Quebec. The dead woman was abused by her husband, so suspicion quickly and naturally falls on him - and stays there. But proving he's the killer is another matter altogether. I knew the "who" although not necessarily the why or how. That's not the fault of the book, really the mystery was well-done. The trio, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste think they have a decent case against the husband, but it's blown out of the water and they...

Beyond a Reasonable Stout by Ellie Alexander

October 9, 2019October 9, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

I'm not a beer drinker, but my husband and our friends are, so I hear a lot of beer talk. Fall is his favorite time of year for beer, and I think that was part of the reason I was attracted to Beyond a Reasonable Stout. I enjoyed learning a bit more about the brewing process; it's interesting and while I realized a lot had to go into it, I've never really read anything about the process. Oktoberfest is over and Sloan and Garrett are starting to work on their winter beers. Leavenworth is a town whose livelihood is the tourist industry and that centers around their craft breweries and their Bavarian-style town. It actually sounds like it would be a fun place to visit. And then Kristopher Cooper gets killed. Granted, just about everyone in town was angry at the anti-alcohol platform he was running on for re-election to city council, but who took it all the way to...

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

October 3, 2019October 4, 2019 by Carol7 Comments

Bleak House is like a soap opera, in a good way. It was originally written as a serial, so it had to have qualities that kept you coming back, day after day or week after week. There's murder and romance and everything in between. You've got some plot lines that are the same no matter how many months (years) between the last time you watched it. Here it's the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the longest-running case in the Court of Chancery. This book actually spurred on legal reform in England. There are probably 60-ish characters, some that show up on an irregular basis and play their bit: a dance instructor, a man who constantly lives off others' generosity, a devoted housekeeper; and others who are the core characters. Bleak House shows us all the types of people in England, the poor, the destitute, the rich, the lawyers and law enforcement, the sick, the lonely. The central character is Esther Summerson,...

Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

October 3, 2019October 3, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Did you listen to the bell video above? Do, because it's the background to the book. We start with church bells and end with church bells, but it's not a tune like the carillon at our church plays. It's change ringing, more mathematical than melodic. The story actually talks about it a fair amount, but basically, the bells are rung in a sequence, but then go through the "changes" or permutations of that sequence. It can more complicated and the jargon itself is interesting, with bobs and hunts and dodges. Lord Peter Wimsey is the series' amateur detective, an English gentleman, second son of a duke, who is wealthy and solves mysteries for his amusement. On New Year's Eve, his car goes off the road near the village of Fenchurch St. Paul. It just so happens that the church has a fabulous set of bells and Wimsey is recruited to help ring a nine-hour peal, as one of the regular ringers is...

Fell Murder by E. C. R. Lorac

September 26, 2019October 4, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

In Fell Murder, Lorac does a great job setting the scene. Before the murder even happens, we know the family and their quarrels, the neighboring farmers and the landscape well. For some, the prolonged introduction may make the book seem to start off slow, but I like getting to know the eventual suspects and seeing how they interacted with the victim when he was alive. Garth was a respected, rather than loved, elderly and wealthy landowner. Even though he was tough and mean, he was a hard-worker and dealt with people fairly for the most part. Nevertheless, there are plenty of suspects among the family and neighbors. MacDonald, our series detective, is called in from Scotland Yard because the local man is too busy and not used to dealing with murders, and it's for the best. The local man is a townie and treats the farmers as if they're stupid. MacDonald is gentler and realizes their slowness in speech and action...