Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

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...
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Fell Murder by E. C. R. Lorac

Fell Murder by E. C. R. Lorac

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...
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Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross

Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross

by Carol6 Comments
I love seasonal novella collections! Haunted House Murder contains three cozy mystery novellas. Each is part of series, but they all worked well as stand-alones for me. Out of the three, the only one I really enjoyed was Hallowed Out by Barbara Ross. Haunted House Murder, the first in the book, was lacking in a real plot. New people move into town, they're weird, let's all judge them. The amount of time Lucy spent complaining about having to take care of her grandson was annoying and I don't understand why her husband seemed to be incapable of helping at all. The mystery itself wasn't really much of a mystery, just people jumping to conclusions with little to no actual evidence. In Death By Haunted House, new people move into town, they're weird, let's all judge them. And guess, what? They haven't killed anyone either. Sorry, that was a spoiler but not a surprising one. At least this time, there actually was...
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Father Brown: Selected Stories by G. K. Chesterton

Father Brown: Selected Stories by G. K. Chesterton

by Carol4 Comments
I finally got around to reading the only Father Brown book I have on my shelf. It's a selection of stories from each of the collections. Father Brown is easy to underestimate. In the first story of the collection, a police detective sees him as rather stupid and bumbling, which is the impression he gives most people at first meeting. "There was ... a very short Roman Catholic priest going up from a small Essex village... The little priest was so much the essence of those Eastern flats; he had a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty as the North Sea; he had several brown-paper parcels, which he was quite incapable of collecting... He had a large, shabby umbrella, which constantly fell on the floor. He did not seem to know which was the right end of his return ticket. He explained with a moon-calf simplicity to everybody in the carriage that he had...
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Binding Dante Lovelace by Jennifer Rainey

Binding Dante Lovelace by Jennifer Rainey

by Carol2 Comments
My two favorite demons, Dante Lovelace and Iago Wick, are in trouble again. Definitely go back and read The Last Temptations of Iago Wick, the first in the series, before Binding Dante Lovelace though. It gives some extra background to the characters that I think it's better when reading this one. The first gives more attention to their jobs as demons, while this one's focus is a bit different. Dante has been bound by a witch, which Hell lets occur. They don't really have their demons' backs when it comes down to it. The witch needs his power to add to hers, but we don't find out why for a few chapters. Turns out the world is actually in danger and Dante has been forced to help save it. Of course, Iago leaves Boston to join him. Of course, saving the world is never easy, especially not for demons. The costs are high. I adore Dante and Iago. I love how...
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The Last Temptations of Iago Wick by Jennifer Rainey

The Last Temptations of Iago Wick by Jennifer Rainey

by Carol2 Comments
The Last Temptations of Iago Wick is such a fun book. Yes, Iago Wick and Dante Lovelace are demons, but they're not evil. Well, maybe a bit, but mostly it's because temptation and catastrophe are their callings. Lucifer gave demons a purpose. They really do enjoy people, like being on earth (it's way better than Hell, even for a demon). Iago is a tempter. The souls he's after are already well on their way to hell, he just gives the final push. His current assignment involves the men in a secret society. that has done some pretty nasty things to a lot of people over the years. But there's this inventor, relatively new in town, who realizes that the town's recent spate of deaths is due to a demon. And Iago might be in more danger than he expects. The book really is delightful. It's funny in a dry way. It's got demons with their own moral code and their own dilemmas....
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