Purchased – Page 54 – Carol's Notebook

Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham

May 3, 2019May 3, 2019 by Carol7 Comments

After listening to the first Albert Campion mystery I wasn't sure how I felt about the series. Look to the Lady is definitely a funner book. Campion is our main character now, and while he's still an odd duck, he clearly knows a lot about what is going on and has quite a few influential friends. The chalice is a priceless, ancient relic and a rich collector wants it. This collector is a member of a group that has its own methods and rules, and Campion is quite familiar with their system. Campion is becoming an interesting character. He is not quite a detective, more like a clever, innocuous man for hire. His plan this time is to figure out who the collector's agent is and basically make sure that person ends up dead. I listened to this one right after the first, so comparisons are inevitable. Allingham took more care of the secondary characters this time around. They were more fully...

The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

I knew going in that The Crime at Black Dudley is not the best of Allingham's Albert Campion series, but it's the first even if he is only a minor character, and if you can start a series at the beginning, why not? Allingham, along with Christie, Sayers, and Marsh, is one of the "Queens of Crime," the only one I hadn't read. I love Christie and Marsh, couldn't care less about Sayers, and am undecided on Allingham. We've got a country house party with an odd assortment of guests. And then somebody's killed, but then it kind of runs amok and the younger set of guests, in their 20's give or take, are held hostage by a batch of criminals, and they need to escape before they end up dead. I'm not a big fan of the international gang type of mysteries. I want smaller mysteries if that makes sense, not ones that could have CONSEQUENCES. It all...

Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

The Final Curtain has a lot of similarities to many of Marsh's other mysteries. We've got a country house party. Inspector Alleyn doesn't show up until about halfway through. We've got a young couple who are meant to be together but have difficulties in the way. We've got a tie to both art and the theater. But Marsh winds these bits together with a pretty terrible family and comes up with an enjoyable mystery that had me stumped. WW 2 is over and Agatha Troy is waiting for her husband, Inspector Alleyn to return from New Zealand. To pass the last couple of weeks, she accepts a commission that takes her to Ancreton Manor to paint a portrait of Sir Henry Ancred, a famous Shakespearean actor in his Macbeth costume. The first half-ish of the book shows us the Ancred family from Troy's point of view and they are overall a melodramatic, argumentative bunch, not people to enjoy spending...

Killer Thriller by Lee Goldberg

April 8, 2019April 12, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

I recently read The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad about spies and violence and politics and it was very good. Killer Thriller is not "good" in the same way, but it is fun and funny and over the top, and it knows it. This is the second in the series and although it works as a stand-alone, the first one is a blast, so I'd read it first. Ian Ludlow writes cheesy thrillers and one is being turned into a movie. He and his assistant Margo head to Hong Kong to participate in some of the publicity surrounding the shooting and to do some research for the novel he's working on. The problem: once again Ian's plot, although outrageous, is too close to reality for him to be safe. This time, his story's about how the Chinese government is planning a coup of the U.S.A using sleeper agents in high government positions and the surveillance technology that they have hidden in...

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

April 5, 2019April 12, 2019 by Carol12 Comments

The blurb gives a clear idea of what Digital Minimalism is all about. We've become addicted to social media/binge-watching/videogames. And our ever present smartphones are just increasing our dependence. Newport advocates stepping away from all social media for 30 days and then only add things that truly enhance your life, and even those need to be added cautiously and perhaps with rules attached. He makes some really great points although not revolutionary. I actually like the parts about what to do instead of endlessly scrolling and liking most. I already know I need to spend less time on my phone, but I like the suggestions he has. He stresses the importance of solitude. He wants us to learn new skills and make/fix things. We need to actually interact with people, preferably in person, but an actual phone conversation, not texting, is good too. I listened to this, ironically enough, via the Audible App on my phone. I think I need to pick...

Cherringham, Episodes #10-12 by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

There's been more murders in dear little Cherringham. And of course Sarah and Jack have to solve them. I enjoy these novella length mysteries. They're long enough for clues and suspects, but short enough that they have to keep moving. In "A Deadly Confession," the cops think Father Byrne died of a heart attack, which is true, but his old friend is convinced there's more to the story. Once again Sarah's internet skills come in handy. I like the old-fashioned denouement here, something this series doesn't usually have. It drags the whole motive(s) out into the open, but allows for a bit of grace in the handling of the whodunnit. Jack and Sarah have to solve the crime in "Blade in the Water," because there's no real evidence that a crime, aside from vandalism, has occurred. That's one of the tricks with cozy mysteries, giving a legitimate reason for the amateur and/or retired detective to need to solve the case, a...