Genre: Mystery

Review – Undertow

Posted November 3, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Undertow

Undertow

by Jordan L. Hawk

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 90
Series: Whyborne & Griffin #8.5
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Shy secretary Maggie Parkhurst knows there’s nothing special about her. She’s neither sorceress, nor fighter, nor scholar. What could she possibly have to offer Persephone, the chieftess of the inhuman ketoi — and the woman Maggie’s fallen in love with?

After Maggie’s friend Irene goes missing under mysterious circumstances, she has no choice but to turn to Persephone for help. When the trail leads to a shadowy acting troupe, they discover a plot that stretches much farther than a single vanished woman.

But when a dark truth is revealed, Maggie must choose between a man from her past… and the impossible yearnings of her heart.

Undertow gives us the story of Dr Whyborne’s secretary, Maggie, and her friendship with his sister, Persephone. It’s a short one, but it has a nice action sequence, and shows us a slightly different side of Widdershins society.

I do think it’s funny that Maggie still hasn’t worked out that Whyborne’s in a relationship with Griffin. All the signs are there, she sees them, and… doesn’t clock on.

It’s nice to spend time with a character other than Whyborne, and also to see Maggie find happiness instead of mooning after him. I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed Persephone’s efforts to woo Maggie. Dead squid, indeed.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Paddington Mystery

Posted November 2, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Paddington Mystery

The Paddington Mystery

by John Rhode

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 187
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

When Harold Merefield returns home from a nightclub in the early hours, he is startled by the gruesome discovery of a corpse - on his own bed! Who is he, and how did he get there?

Unconvinced by the inquest's verdict of 'death from natural causes', Harold determines to investigate the matter for himself and seeks the help of Professor Priestly, an academic with a reputation for solving curious affairs by the simple but unusual method of logical reasoning...

Apparently this is one of the first of John Rhode’s mysteries, so I was pretty intrigued: I’ve enjoyed his work, especially as Miles Burton, in a very classic mystery sort of way — perhaps not too enlightening about characters or even places, but a fun puzzle, and a satisfying sense of the world being put more or less to rights.

This book has those things, with actually a reasonable amount of character: Harold’s a bit of a mess, but cleaning his act up, and the Professor comes across quite sympathetically given that his daughter is tangentially involved in the mystery. I remember I’ve read one of the others starring Priestly, but couldn’t remember a single detail about him: this is a bit more memorable.

The mystery wasn’t too surprising, and I figured out some chunks of it quite quickly, but it was still satisfying to unravel and to see how Priestly gets things straightened out. I enjoyed it.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Post After Post-Mortem

Posted October 30, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Post After Post-Mortem

Post After Post-Mortem

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 300
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth – middle sister who writes ‘books which are just books’ – decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays’ hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth’s literary executor in the will she left behind.

Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide – but when Ruth’s brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.

I normally love E.C.R. Lorac’s books, and I think this was a very fine example of her work… without being one that I, strictly speaking, enjoyed. She has a way of describing characters and places that can make you love them and feel their goodness — and in this book, the nastiness of murder feels particularly prominent. It’s less “good people overcome” and more “good people are overcome”, and it just hit wrong for my current mood, despite being well handled.

Those who read it should be warned that the setup has the murder being taken to be suicide at first, and that the family react accordingly, with shock and horror and the sense that the world is upended. And that isn’t the end to their sorrows.

It’s a good thing that Lorac writes such a sensitive, humane detective in MacDonald, because his sympathy also helped to make this book as powerful as it is.

In the end, the solution was also a sad one, and the whole thing just left me with a sense of melancholy. Beautifully written, perhaps among Lorac’s best — but perhaps not one that I’ll visit again.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Crocodile on the Sandbank

Posted October 26, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Crocodile on the Sandbank

Crocodile on the Sandbank

by Elizabeth Peters

Genres: Mystery, Romance
Pages: 296
Series: Amelia Peabody #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!

In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least, that's what he thinks.

The main problem with The Crocodile on the Sandbank is that it’s impossible to tell whether Peters was trying to write about period-appropriate attitudes, or whether the racism is ingrained. Either way, it doesn’t sit comfortably for a modern reader, at least without some sense that it’s on purpose: Amelia Peabody is so close to modern in some ways that it feels jarring when she’s a typical colonialist Brit of the period. At the same time, the fact that other details strive for period accuracy suggests it may be (at least in part) for the sake of verisimilitude.

As it is, I ended up trying to read it with my “enthusiast of classic crime” hat on, since it comes out of that mould. And in that light, it’s pretty enjoyable; I thought the mystery a little obvious, but it also makes sense that the headstrong characters don’t communicate and put things together because they’re too busy being headstrong.

I do love books set in and around Egypt, so it also fits into that craving for me, which made it extra enjoyable.

I’ll give the next book a try, though whether I keep up somewhat depends on where we’re going next (in terms of plot: I gather Egypt remains our location, based on the next couple of titles).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – He Who Whispers

Posted October 23, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – He Who Whispers

He Who Whispers

by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 270
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

'It almost seemed that the murder, if it was a murder, must have been committed by someone who could rise up unsupported in the air…'

When Miles Hammond is invited to a meeting of the Murder Club in London, he is met instead with just two other guests and is treated to a strange tale of an impossible crime in France from years before; the murder of a man on a tower with only one staircase, under watch at the time at which the murder took place. With theories of levitating vampires abounding, the story comes home to Miles when he realises that the librarian he has just hired for his home is none other than Fay Seton, a woman whose name still echoes from the heart of this bizarre and unsolved murder of the past.

I don’t normally get along with John Dickson Carr’s work. In fact, I don’t even buy the British Library Crime Classic editions — it’s one of only three gaps in my collection (a few of the short story collections, which I’m slowly picking up, and the Sergeant Cluff books are the others), because I just haven’t got along with the others.

It’s hard to say why this was an exception. I think in part it’s that it’s a fair-play mystery. Though there is a Great Detective (Gideon Fell), the POV character isn’t treated too much as his side-kick, and there’s some interesting attempts at psychological realism (even if it’s unfortunately in part about a “nymphomaniac” girl). I was able to form theories about it, and feel like I had the clues that fell into place at the right moments, and I didn’t universally hate the characters. There’s nothing so straightforward as some of Carr’s other female characters and snap romances.

It’s enough to give me hope for some of the Carr books I haven’t picked up yet: maybe some of those will equally have some joys for me. I was glad I gave this a shot thanks to my British Library Crime Classics subscription!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Mummy Case Mystery

Posted October 20, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Mummy Case Mystery

The Mummy Case Mystery

by Dermot Morrah

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 230
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

The Commemoration Night ball at Beaufort College, Oxford, is disturbed first by a strange prank with a professor's mummy, then by a tragic fire that kills the professor-or did it? If he died in the fire, what happened to the mummy? Professors Sargent and Considine take it upon themselves to investigate when the coroner rules accidental death, leaving them with unanswered questions.

I read about this book in Martin Edwards’ book on classic crime, and thought it sounded pretty awesome, so I tracked down a copy. In the UK they’re stupidly expensive, but AbeBooks solved that problem.

The book is very much an Oxford mystery: the first few chapters are just completely redolent of nostalgia and love for Oxford. It’s very similar in feel to Gaudy Night, and I’d be surprised if Dermot Morrah wasn’t an alumnus. (There’s a touch of romance here, but only the very lightest touch: no placet ne, magistra? here, and no chance of it either. It’s not anti-women but it’s not particularly positive about them either, though at least one character’s views on women in education are rather shown up.)

The mystery is entertaining enough, and I cottoned on to significant parts of it — not all, but most. Don’t be fooled by the title, in any case: the Egyptian stuff is mere trappings, though the mummy case is important in its way. Oxford is the real star.

I found it enjoyable, but a little slow and convoluted.

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