Tag: mystery

Review – Crimson Snow

Posted December 23, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Crimson Snow

Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 317
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Crimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases behaving oddly, a famous fictional detective in a Yuletide drama, mysterious tracks in the snow, and some very unpleasant carol singers. There's no denying that the supposed season of goodwill is a time of year that lends itself to detective fiction.On a cold night, it's tempting to curl up by the fireside with a good mystery. And more than that, claustrophobic house parties, with people cooped up with long-estranged relatives, can provide plenty of motives for murder.

Including forgotten stories by major writers such as Margery Allingham, as well as classic tales by less familiar crime novelists, each story in this selection is introduced by the leading expert on classic crime, Martin Edwards. The resulting volume is an entertaining and atmospheric compendium of wintry delights.

Crimson Snow is one of the British Library Crime Classic collections themed around mysteries set at Christmas. The back copy says the theme is “stories set in winter”, but I think all of them featured Christmas specifically in some way.

There’s a fun range here, and I think it was one of the earlier ones, since they had a Margery Allingham one to include as well. They range around a bit in tone, with “The Carol Singers” feeling particularly dark and unpleasant (an old woman is victimised by carol singers who tie her up, covering her mouth with sticking plaster, ultimately leading to her death).

I’ve read a bunch of these collections, but I think this was one of the better ones. Or maybe I’ve just had a bit of a break from the format since last Christmas!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Secret Adversary

Posted December 16, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 268
Series: Tommy & Tuppence #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Set in 1919, young couple Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley form a partnership, hiring themselves out as "young adventurers." Their first case, however, is more of an adventure than they expect -- working to find documents that, if they were known to the general public, would fuel a communist revolution in Britain.

Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary has aged fairly badly in a number of ways, with her right-wing politics on display and various classic stereotypes. It’s the first Tommy and Tuppence book, and it was interesting to read it in light of the biography of her I read recently: written during her first marriage, Tommy and Tuppence have elements of Agatha and Archie.

The more of Christie’s work I read, though, the less I seem to like it… The plotting just isn’t as good as people would lead you to believe. Could I do better? Probably not, but I can point to a number of writers who could. It’s entertaining, and I can understand people who get attached to her characters, but it leaves me cold. Once she’s tricked you once, it’s easy to see through her other misdirections; even if you don’t quite know where things are going to land, you can at least say “nah, that’s just a red herring”.

So overall, it was alright, but I think I’ll wrap up my reading of Christie’s work once I get to the end of the ones available in Serial Reader, at least for now.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Murder in the Bookshop

Posted December 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Murder in the Bookshop

Murder in the Bookshop

by Carolyn Wells

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 256
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

A classic locked room murder mystery which will have a special resonance for lovers and collectors of Golden Age detective fiction. Includes a bonus murder story: 'The Shakespeare Title-Page Mystery'.

A successful poet and children's author, Carolyn Wells discovered mystery fiction in her forties and went on to become one of America's most popular Golden Age writers. Penning 82 detective novels between 1909 and her death in 1942, she was mourned in 1968 by the great John Dickson Carr as one of mystery fiction's 'lost ladies now well lost', and remains undeservedly neglected 50 years later. Murder in the Bookshop is a story laced with criminality, locked rooms and bookish intricacies that any bibliophile will find irresistible.

This Detective Club hardback is introduced by award-winning writer and authority on Golden Age detective fiction, Curtis Evans, and includes 'The Shakespeare Title-Page Mystery', a murderous tale of literary shenanigans that was one of the last pieces of detective fiction which Carolyn Wells ever published.

I picked up Carolyn Wells’ Murder in the Bookshop because 1) bookshop, 2) classic mystery, and 3) female author name from whom I hadn’t read anything yet. It’s American rather than British, which is part of why I hadn’t come across the author before. This volume also contained a short story, “The Shakespeare Title-Page Mystery”.

As far as the setup goes it’s fairly typical, with various hallmarks of the genre: a controlling husband, a younger wife who has developed a relationship with someone who works for her husband, the murder of said husband, a private detective, and of course, suspicion of the wife and the employee. In addition we have the stolen book, and various legit-sounding details around rare books and the rare book trade.

It falls down on inconsistency, though. One moment Fleming Stone says it’d be dangerous for the young wife and her lover to seem close, and the next (without any debate or comment) he’s talking to the police about it quite casually. “I’m not going to show this to her,” he says, only a couple of pages before he promptly does so. It just feels like a bunch of steps are being missed out — things there might be reasons for, but which you need to hear the reasons for before they make sense.

In addition, the ending is very, very rushed, and suddenly you no longer see any of the moving parts. It’s also one of those mysteries that keeps key info from the reader, which is a pet peeve for some.

It’s a shame, really, but I don’t think I’d read anything by this author again — it was too unsatisfying.

Rating: 1/5

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Review – The Secret of Chimneys

Posted December 2, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Secret of Chimneys

The Secret of Chimneys

by Agatha Christie

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 400
Series: Superintendent Battle #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Little did Anthony Cade suspect that an errand for a friend would land him at the center of a deadly conspiracy. Drawn into a web of intrigue, he begins to realize that the simple favor has placed him in serious danger.

As events unfold, the combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French Sûreté gradually converge on Chimneys, the great country estate that hides an amazing secret.

Agatha Christie’s The Secret of Chimneys is one I’d tried to start before, but hadn’t got into at the time — I think because it just felt convoluted from the start. This time, reading it via Serial Reader, I enjoyed it rather more: Cade and his irreverent tone, Virginia and her lively curiosity about life (and reluctance to accept conventionality for the sake of it), and poor Lord Caterham, forced to host political meetings because of the traditions around his house (leave the poor man alone).

There are a few points where she really bucks the stereotypical trends in mystery stories, e.g. when Cade confides some of what’s going on to Battle, cutting through a lot of suspicion to clear up some of the webs of mystery (which only sharpens interest in other aspects, of course). There were several turns that were clearly intended to be surprises which I found very obvious, but it was still fun to see how things come to light.

In a way, the romance isn’t very different to that in The Man in the Brown Suit, but the difference in point of view and a touch less focus on it helps; it still feels abrupt, but I found it significantly less annoying. (I suppose it also helps that they meet under somewhat different circumstances, too.) I’m also reading a biography of Agatha Christie at the moment, and I think it’s right there’s a touch of her first husband in some of her protagonists, Anthony Cade included.

Anyway, an enjoyable mystery.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Rose/House

Posted November 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Rose/House

Rose/House

by Arkady Martine

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction
Pages: 128
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.

But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.

There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up.

No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I’ve been curious about Arkady Martine’s Rose/House for a while, but it wasn’t available as an ebook in the UK, so I set it aside for the future. When I spotted it for request on Netgalley, I admit I rather swooped on it! I think the description tends to suggest it’s a science fiction mystery, but I’d argue it comes out closer to horror than to mystery in many ways, playing with themes and scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror novel.

All in all, it might be best not to cling too tightly to labels and let the story speak for itself, though. Certainly the AI at the centre of the story, Rose House, seems to be playing around: it allows Detective Maritza Smith into the house, under the conceit that she is not a person but “the precinct” — and Maritza plays along.

It’s all as unsettling as Rose House itself is described to be, with bizarre scenes like a dead body stuffed with rose petals, the descriptions of weird architecture, and the obvious hold that Basit Deniau has over Selene Gisil, despite his death. The setup does sound like it’s meant to be an “impossible crime”/locked room type mystery — but I think we’re given something else that plays with that concept. (Though I think there are elements of “fair play” mystery here; we’re told something important that we may not notice is important, but we have the clue.)

I enjoyed it a lot, and I’m glad I got to read it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Murder at the British Museum

Posted November 21, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Murder at the British Museum

Murder at the British Museum

by Jim Eldridge

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 320
Series: Museum Mysteries #2
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

1894. A well-respected academic is found dead in a gentlemen's convenience cubicle at the British Museum, the stall locked from the inside. Professor Lance Pickering had been due to give a talk promoting the museum's new 'Age of King Arthur' exhibition when he was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Having forged a strong reputation working alongside the inimitable Inspector Abberline on the Jack the Ripper case, Daniel Wilson is called in to solve the mystery of the locked cubicle murder, and he brings his expertise and archaeologist Abigail Fenton with him.

But it isn't long before the museum becomes the site of another fatality and the pair face mounting pressure to deliver results. With enquiries compounded by persistent journalists, local vandals and a fanatical society, Wilson and Fenton face a race against time to salvage the reputation of the museum and catch a murderer desperate for revenge.

Murder at the British Museum follows on from the first book in Jim Eldridge’s series of mysteries based in museums, following the characters Daniel Wilson (retired cop, now private investigator) and Abigail Fenton (archaeologist, now also a private investigator) as they tackle another murder in a museum. There’s a lot of tension in this book between the private investigators and the police, since Daniel’s now working alongside people he knew in the force, but it isn’t just one-dimensional: Inspector Feather is friendly and helpful, and unlike in the previous book, the narrative follows the police as well part of the time, which was interesting.

Overall, I found it more engaging than the previous book, with Abigail’s character feeling a touch more consistent. It’s unfortunate that for plot reasons she had to do something pretty stupid a couple of times, but there’s a couple of interesting scenes between her and Daniel (for instance her gently telling him that he mustn’t act like she’s in danger everywhere she goes, and must accept that she’ll gauge this for herself).

It’s not a series I’m going to read for the characters, I think, but it worked better for me on that front this time.

I’ll spare you any quibbles and thoughts on the subject of Arthurian scholarship, particularly as it was all from a historical rather than literary point of view (since I mostly studied it from a literary point of view). It was good enough for fiction, though I’d have expected a bit better of Abigail than to think Malory was the originator of a lot of it (she should have pointed to the Vulgate Cycle). I did think it was an interesting motive and a good use of actual scholarly arguments to set up the reason for murder.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Rope’s End, Rogue’s End

Posted November 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Rope’s End, Rogue’s End

Rope's End, Rogue's End

by E.C.R. Lorac

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 249
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Wulfstane Manor, a rambling old country house with many unused rooms, winding staircases, and a maze of cellars, had been bequeathed to Veronica Mallowood and her brother Martin. The last time the large family of Mallowoods had all foregathered under the ancestral roof was on the occasion of their father's funeral, and there had been one of those unholy rows which not infrequently follow the reading of a will. That was some years ago, and as Veronica found it increasingly difficult to go on paying for the upkeep of Wulfstane, she summoned another family conference -- a conference in which Death took a hand.

Rope's End, Rogue's End is, of course, an Inspector MacDonald case, in which that popular detective plays a brilliant part.

Rope’s End, Rogue’s End isn’t one of my favourite E.C.R. Lorac books so far, though when I say that you always need to take into account that I think she was a really great writer. A three-star rating for an E.C.R. Lorac book is always relative (for me) to what I know her best books can be. In this case, she didn’t really exercise her talent for likeable characters, with everyone in the Mallowood family being difficult and argumentative, their relationships always rocky.

What I did think about a lot is that E.C.R. Lorac was careful not to pigeon-hole herself. She doesn’t have a particular character “type” that always turns out to be the villain. There are similarities between the situation in this book and that in Accident by Design — but the similarities are fairly superficial, and not a guide as to whodunnit in this particular story.

As usual, Lorac’s ability to evoke a sense of place does shine through in the portrayal of Wulfstane Manor, though again, it’s not a copy/paste by any means: while several of the characters adore the house, and Macdonald is certainly impressed by it, it doesn’t feel like a happy house, and the sense of wear and dilapidation is what comes through most strongly.

The mystery itself, I worked out the basics of fairly quickly, but figuring out exactly how everything was done was something else.

The main thing marring the experience here is that the Kindle edition is very badly edited. My guess is that OCR was used, but the system didn’t recognise various bits of punctuation (colons and dashes), meaning that sentences don’t always make a whole lot of sense.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Man in the Brown Suit

Posted November 10, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Man in the Brown Suit

The Man in the Brown Suit

by Agatha Christie

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 381
Series: Colonel Race #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

A young woman investigates an accidental death at a London tube station, and finds herself of a ship bound for South Africa…

Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her – and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electocuted on the rails.

The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied.

After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: ‘17-122 Kilmorden Castle’?

Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit is rather different to her Poirot books in style and tone, rather breathlessly narrated by a main female character, Anne Beddingfield. Entangled in a mystery, she falls in love more or less at first sight, and proceeds to have adventures characterised by a fair amount of impulsiveness on her part. If it reminds me of anything, it reminds me most of Mary Stewart’s books, like Madam, Will You Talk?

It didn’t especially stand out to me, I’d say; there are a couple of plot points that are staples of the genre, and it feels like quirks like Sir Eustace Pedler and Suzanne’s enthusiasm are a great part of what carries it. There’s quite a bit of internalised sexism about Anne’s character and the way she, Suzanne, and the love interest all interact.

I’ll admit reading reviews I’m quite surprised it’s so popular. I just thought it was okay.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Murder at the Fitzwilliam

Posted October 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Murder at the Fitzwilliam

Murder at the Fitzwilliam

by Jim Eldridge

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 320
Series: Museum Mysteries #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

After rising to prominence for his role investigating the case of Jack the Ripper, former Detective Inspector Daniel Wilson is now retired. Known for his intelligence, investigative skills, and most of all his discretion, he's often consulted when a case must be solved quickly and quietly. So when a body is found in the Egyptian Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Wilson is called in.

As he tries to uncover the identity of the dead man and the circumstances surrounding his demise, Wilson must contend with an unhelpful police Inspector, and more alarmingly, Abigail McKenzie, the archaeologist who discovered the body and is determined to protect the Egyptian collection. Can they find a way to work together to solve the mystery?

I picked up Jim Eldridge’s Murder at the Fitzwilliam mostly because I love the idea of mysteries set in museums, and this is the first of the series. It’s been rare that a mystery used the full coolness of the museum setting… and alas, this was the case again here. It was an easy read, it’s not that I didn’t have fun, but it felt more like the setting was “Cambridge in general” rather than specifically a museum.

The detectives are Daniel Wilson (a former copper turned private inquiry agent) and Abigail McKenzie, an archaeologist and blatantly obvious love interest. Daniel’s a bit nondescript, just a fairly standard male detective, while Abigail’s a bit highly strung in some ways — a bit prone to the dramatic, as the final scene where she bursts into tears at him after yelling at him because he’s supposed to have magically understood from her cold behaviour that she wants to date him. One minute she’s touting how practical she is (and boasting about having seen XYZ in Egypt), and the next there’s a mood swing and she’s angry at Daniel for even suggesting something. There are some reasons for her behaviour, but overall it just felt weird.

The concept is still tempting enough to me that I’m going to try the second book, and I don’t regret giving the first one a shot, but I hope for a bit more use of the museum setting, and a bit more consistency in the portrayal of Abigail.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Murder By Memory

Posted October 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – Murder By Memory

Murder By Memory

by Olivia Waite

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Science Fiction
Pages: 112
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

Told through Dorothy’s delightfully shrewd POV, Murder by Memory is an ode to the cozy mystery taken to the stars with a fresh new sci-fi take. Perfect for fans of the plot-twisty narratives of Dorothy Sayers and Ann Leckie, this well-paced story will leave readers captivated and hungry for the series’ next installment.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Olivia Waite’s Murder By Memory compared itself to Dorothy L. Sayers and Ann Leckie, which was a huge ask — and I don’t think it worked. Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I didn’t get Sayers from it (more Agatha Christie) and there wasn’t enough focus on the culture or enough gender fuckery to feel like a Leckie title. The comparison to A Memory Called Empire didn’t ring particularly true for me, either, but Miss Marple is an apt comparison.

It was a fun mystery, nonetheless, shaped by its setting rather than just pasted on, and I enjoyed Dorothy’s voice and the concept of the generation ship, the “books” that hold people’s memories, and the ingenious crime that makes use of that. Plus, it’s nice to have a detective fascinated by knitting, and shaped by a long life.

I’d be curious about more stories in the same world, and a few more peeks at things like the Antikythera Club, Crimes Committed, and of course, Dorothy and her interest in Violet. And knitting.

Rating: 4/5

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