Mystery – Page 81 – Carol's Notebook

The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne

April 29, 2020April 28, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

It's a shame Milne only wrote one mystery. The Red House Mystery is clever and funny and charming. From the dedication: Our amateur sleuth is Antony Gillingham. He stops at The Red House to visit his friend, Bill Beverly, but as he gets there he finds a frantic man banging on the door of a locked room, trying to get in. Antony and the man run to the back of the house and break in the window, finding a dead man, shot. The man who was breaking into the room was Mr. Cayley, cousin and assistant to Mark Ablett, owner of The Red House. The dead man is Mark's brother, Robert, newly arrived from Australia. Mark himself is missing. Antony is an outsider at The Red House, but allowed free reign that the detectives don't have. The mystery is well-done, the clues make sense. I knew who the killer was, but not the hows and whys until the end. The characters are...

A Scandal in Belgravia by Robert Barnard

April 27, 2020April 24, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I picked A Scandal in Belgravia up at a library book sale. I had never heard of Barnard before, but the title grabbed my eye because of the Sherlock episode. After i read the blurb on the back it sounded like one I'd enjoy and I think it was like 50¢. I have to say I'm really pleased I picked it up. Peter Proctor, a former politician, is writing his memoirs. Or at least trying to. But his mind keeps going back to the murder of his friend, Timothy Wycliffe, some 30 years ago. I liked the pace of this mystery. It's an old murder. The police think they knew who did it and the killer is safely out of the country. There's no rush; no one's in danger; there's nothing to be gained by solving the case aside for peace of mind - and maybe a book that will sell better than his memoirs. Peter can go around talking to people,...

A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones

April 22, 2020April 22, 2020 by Carol3 Comments

Sunshine Vicram, new sheriff of Del Sol, more than has her hands full. It's her first day on the job and the cursed muffins arrive, the ones that always come before something majorly bad happens in town. There a few hints of the paranormal, a psychic, some prophetic dreams, but nothing that takes it into fantasy territory. This time around the muffins presage a kidnapping and an escaped convict being seen in town. This is the first in the series and there are a lot of people to meet: Sunshine and her team; her daughter Auri and the kids at her school; Sunshine's parents; the townspeople, including Levi, Sunshine's crush; a U.S. marshall and some other lawn enforcement guy who there to help with the cases. It's a lot of characters. They weren't necessarily confusing but it was hard to keep track of them all. I like Sunshine. She's funny and sarcastic and competent, but I wish she wouldn't drool over every...

A Little Night Murder by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

April 16, 2020April 16, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Sir Harry Mortimer and his American wife, Kat, are settling into married life in the small town of Mydworth. A Little Night Murder is the second in the Mydworth series and can be read as a stand-alone, but since they're each only a little over 100 pages, it might just make as much sense to go back and meet Harry and Kat at the beginning. They make a good couple. They're both smart and resourceful. Kat is definitely a "modern woman" for the times, the late 1920s, and Harry seems quite happy that she can ride a motorcycle and throws a mean hook when she needs to. Harry is a nice, friendly, refined man who can also be tough when it's called for. This time around, the pair are investigating the death of a poacher at the request of the dead man's mother. She's certain it was not an accident, as the police claim. Of course, she's right. We follow...

A Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

I'm running out of Ngaio Marsh books. :( A Grave Mistake is one of the last of Marsh's books. It was written in the late 70s but set earlier than that I think and still has the Golden Age feel that most of her stories do. We have a small English village, a beautifully maintained Georgian house owned by Sybil Foster, a rather snobbish, but attractive middle-aged widow who has recently hired a talented gardener. She has a daughter who is engaged, much to Sybil's annoyance, to the son of a Greek millionaire instead of a man with a title. Sybil goes to a nearby hotel/spa for rest and maybe to secure the attentions of the doctor on staff. Of course, she ends up dead. At first, it's considered suicide, but evidence soon points to murder, which is why Alleyn is called in. Alleyn has Fox with him on this case, and I do enjoy the pair of them. They get...

Jade Dragon Mountain by Elsa Hart

April 6, 2020April 6, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

It took me a few chapters to get into Jade Dragon Mountain. The setting is amazing, but very different from most books I read. The pace at the beginning was slow, or at least the audio made it feel that way. However, once Li Du was settled in to his cousin the magistrate's home and we met all the others there, both the household and the foreigners, the story became engrossing. People have gathered in Dayan because the Emperor is coming and there will be a celebration of the eclipse. One of the visitors, a Jesuit astronomer, is killed in his room, poisoned. Li Du is not content with the official story and the magistrate allows him to investigate the crime. There were many people with access to the room and the tea that was poisoned, but, it's difficult to see who gained from the older man's murder. The author does a wonderful job at making us feel like we're in eighteenth-century...