eBook – Page 16 – Carol's Notebook

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 by Carol10 Comments

Generally, I don't read emotionally heavy books, and I don't know if I would have picked up The Radium Girls if I had known that it would have me in tears on almost every page. That being said, it was an excellent book, one I would definitely recommend. At the beginning of the 20th century, dozens of healthy, young, working-class women (some as young as 14) were employed in a newly-born business: painting watch, clock, and other instrument dials with a luminescent paint containing radium, both for consumers and the military. At the time, this fluorescent wonder was believed so beneficial for the body, that medications, aesthetic treatments, and even toiletry items had started to employ it. Everyone who came in contact with this miracle of science was amazed by its property to make everything it touched glow, even the skin, teeth and clothes of the girls who worked with it. Painting with radium was a highly desired job, as it offered...

Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

I do have a fondness for mysteries involving art. In Death of a Ghost, a young artist is killed at the showing of a painting, not his painting, one of his mentor's, Lafcadio. Lafcadio, before he died, left instructions to have one of his paintings that he had boxed up shown each year beginning several years after his death, and his wishes have been faithfully carried out by his widow- quite a strong woman by the way, the kind of woman who takes everything life throws at her, straightens her shoulders, and carries on. Campion, luckily, was at the party/showing, so even though he didn't actually witness the murder, as a friend of the family he takes an interest in the mystery. There is a lot of art talk in this one, which I find fascinating. I even took a picture of at least one page and sent it to Amber, since the description of the area where the paint was...

The Curse of Braeburn Castle by Karen Baugh Menuhin

February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

Heathcliff Lennox (please call him Lennox) was in WW 1 and his butler Greggs, with whom he has an entertaining and humorous relationship, was his batman. Now back home, Lennox is having a bit of an adjustment to civilian life. He prefers solitary activities like fishing or walking his dog, Mr. Fogg, in the countryside around his slowly declining estate. However, he has friends and family that can bring him out into the world beyond his gates. Lennox is likable and intelligent, tongue-tied around women, but loyal and honest. The Curse of Braeburn Castle is the third mystery I've read featuring him and may be the best so far. This third one begins when Lennox's newly-married friend, former detective Swift, asks him to come to Braeburn Castle to help with the discovery of a centuries-old skeleton. The discovery of the skeletons has brought a team of archaeologists to the castle, a group Swift doesn't trust, and now the skull and it's...

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes published by Dover Publications

February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 16 classic detective stories from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. The detectives are not so much rivals of Holmes as contemporaries. The collection is centered around when the stories were written, but they come from a variety of regions. I've read a few of the authors before and a couple of the stories, but several were to me. There were even a couple of female detectives, unusual for the era. As with most anthologies, I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. The book starts off with "The Great Ruby Robbery" by Grant Allen which was clever and funny, a good combination and a good way to open. "Cinderella's Slipper" by Hugh C. Weir and his Miss Madelyn Mack also stood out for me. I met Max Carrados in "The Coin of Dionysius" by Ernest Braman. He's a blind detective, which is unique. Another, this one from America,...

Left-Handed Death by Richard Hull

February 6, 2020February 6, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

Left-Handed Death is the first of Richard Hull's mysteries I've read. It's got an interesting perspective. We kind of start in the middle of the mystery. Arthur Shergold and Guy Reeves are sitting in their office, discussing recent events, in particular, Reeves' lunch that day with a civil servant from the Ministry, Barry Foster. Foster has become a problem for their company, which deals with contracts for the Ministry of Defence. Neither of them particularly like the man either. The dinner seems to end with Reeves killing Foster in Foster's home, strangling him to death. Later that day, Reeves goes to Scotland Yard and confesses to the crime. Inspector Hardwick isn’t quite ready to accept things at face value, he sets out to prove Reeves innocent. It's an interesting set-up. We know that there's something fishy about Reeves' confession, but not sure quite what? Why would he confess if he hadn't done it? If he did do it, why did...

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley by Leighann Dobbs

December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley is the second of the Christmas Village Cozies. They're both quick fun reads and I read this one right after the first. Gus is on vacation in Christmas Village, playing jazz piano at the North Pole Lounge. She knows Christmas Village can't be as perfect and cheery as it seems. While she's out and about she watches as a protester keels over, obviously poisoned, and she can't help investigating. The woman was protesting the treatment of the birds in Christmas Village: the partridge, French hens, geese, swans, turtle doves. There are lots of suspects in her death with the birds' caretakers and the philandering husband and his mistress, at the top of the list. The problem, at least for Gus, is that the local detective in charge was one of her teachers at the police academy. They apparently never got along well, and not Detective Winters is insisting Gus stay out of the way. So Gus, and...