Book Reviews – Page 120 – Carol's Notebook

The Lady in the Cellar by Sinclair McKay

October 10, 2018October 10, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

In general, true crimes don't interest me. Give me a fictional and a quirky fictional detective who will definitely solve the case and I'm usually happy. However, this year I've been trying to broaden my reading habits to include more non-fiction and classics. The Lady in the Cellar is a fascinating book examining the murder of Matilda Hacker in the 1870s and the events surrounding the body's discovery and the trials that resulted. In a lot of ways, The Lady in the Cellar is similar to the fictional detective stories I enjoy. We have a quirky cast of characters, including the victim herself, who was a well-off woman but did not behave in the way single women of her age were supposed to in that era. We have a semi-famous detective, Inspector Charles Hagen, who had already been in the papers a few years earlier as the bodyguard of the Prince of Wales and was a rising star in the Criminal Investigation...

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

October 9, 2018October 8, 2018 by Carol9 Comments

Peril at End House is classic Poirot. Lovely Nick doesn't know her life is in danger until Poirot helpfully points out that her near-accidents were probably not coincidence. But why would any of her friends want her dead? She's not rich, she's not mean. Poirot is determined to keep her safe, but that's easier said than done, especially when another woman is killed, mistaken for Nick. This was a fun little mystery. The denouement was a good one, a bit unusual for a Poirot mystery. I mean, there was the typical gathering of all the players, but the excuse he uses to bring them together is a good one. The killer doesn't see the trap he has set at all. (S)he thinks (s)he has everyone fooled. (S)he doesn't, of course, and there are plenty of clues sprinkled through the book - I just missed them....

The Diary of a Madman by Guy de Maupassant

October 4, 2018 by CarolNo Comments

In general, I'm more likely to read novellas than short stories. but RIP XIII's Peril of the Short Story is a good excuse to pick some up. I'm not sure how "The Diary of a Madman" by Guy de Maupassant came to my attention, but it's one of those stories that manages to pack so much in so few pages. The dead man was a judge, but he was far, far from the upstanding, good man the public believed him. The story, after a short introduction, is a section from his journal, detailing his thoughts on man, and crime, and killing. It's a short story, available at https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-diary-of-a-madman and I don't want to ruin it by telling the entire plot. Suffice it to say, the judge is evil and, in the end, uses his office to put the crowning touch on his crimes. De Maupassant does an amazing job in so few pages allowing us to see the true nature of the judge, as...

The Night the Forest Came to Town by Charles Ghigna

October 3, 2018April 13, 2018 by Carol10 Comments

I loved this little picture book. One night, nature comes to the dull, drab town. It blows in and scampers in and flies in. The illustrations are whimsical, detailed, and perfect for the story. The plants and animals are bright and colorful where the concrete and buildings are gray and boring. The rhyming text is cute and I think this would make a wonderful read aloud. I had an advanced copy, but I hope a similar image is in the final version. I love peeking in the windows and seeing people doing such a variety of thing, including painting and playing an instrument. I have slight bias, but I love books that show artists, especially adults. I think it's a good example for kids who don't necessarily see their parents or other adults they know doing those things. The joy the plants and flowers and animals bring to the city-dwellers is obvious. It's a good reminder for all of us to include...

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

October 2, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

It's funny, when I saw Lethal White was out, I had to pick it up. I remember loving Cormoran Strike, the detective, and really enjoying the novels. I apparently had absolutely erased Career of Evil (#3) from my mind. Looking back at my review for that one, I almost DNF'ed it, but finished only because, well, I love Cormoran Strike. That's fine, because Lethal White was a return to the series I enjoy. The mystery begins, as the blurb states, with a young man's visit to Strike's office. The young man, Billy, clearly has mental health issues, but he also clearly believes he saw a child strangled years earlier. Separately, Strike is hired by Jasper Chiswell, the Minister of Culture, who is being blackmailed by Jimmy Knight, Billy's older brother, and Geraint Winn, the husband of the Minister for Sport. Chiswell wants Strike to get dirt on Winn and Knight that he can use against them, but won't tell Strike what information...

In at the Death by Francis Duncan

September 28, 2018September 14, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

I've been reading a lot of vintage mysteries lately, Hercule Poirot, Roderick Alleyn, Sherlock Holmes. Mordecai Tremaine is one of the lesser-known detectives of the era, at least now, I'm not sure about when the stories were originally published. I like him though; I'm glad the books are being reissued. Mordecai is a retired tobacconist, a bachelor, and a bit of a romantic. He's an amateur detective who solves mysteries by observing, by understanding people. He also blends in well, he's unobtrusive and people tend not to notice him or not be threatened by him, which allows him to sometimes learn things quicker and easier than the police. In In at the Death, Mordecai is actually invited by his friend Chief Inspector Jonathan Boyce to tag along on an investigation, beginning to end. Mordecai can be rather introspective too. "It was when you came up against the thing in its actuality that its atmosphere changed; from being a fascinating problem to intrigue the brain,...