Tag: England

Review 2692: Death at the Sign of the Rook

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Jackson Brodie is in his 70s now but still working as a private detective. He has taken a case from Hazel and Ian Padgett, who claim their mother Dorothy’s caregiver, Melanie Hope, stole a painting from her after she died, a Renaissance painting that is probably valuable. But Jackson finds something shifty about the Padgetts, not to mention that the painting was hung behind Dorothy’s bedroom door.

Periodically, we depart this story to look in on the community at Barton Makepeace, an estate so encumbered that the new Lord Milton, Piers, is turning part of the house into a hotel and hosting murder mystery weekends. Piers’s son Como has stolen a valuable Renoir to pay his debts, and now Lady Milton’s valued housekeeper, Sophie, has disappeared with one of the remaining valuable paintings, a Turner. Jackson’s friend Sergeant Reggie Carter has been called in on the case, but Jackson starts to think that Sophie and Melanie may be the same woman.

As usual with a Jackson Brodie book, the story meanders around among several characters, especially inhabiting the surrounds of Barton Makepeace, including a one-legged wounded warrior who is having trouble finding his place and a vicar who has lost his faith and his voice.

We learn from the opening that this novel ends in a parody of a country house mystery with the characters trapped in the stately home during the murder mystery play in a snowstorm—oh, and an escaped murderer is on the loose.

My only caveat about this enjoyable novel is that I can no longer remember the plot of the previous book (from five years ago) to understand several references to it. Atkinson’s mysteries aren’t typical of the genre, but they are fun.

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Transcription

Review 2690: The Last Word

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The Last Word is technically the latest Harbinder Kauer novel, although judging by the list of previous books, Griffiths isn’t calling the series by her name, and she is only peripheral to the investigation. Instead, this novel returns to characters who appeared five years ago in The Postscript Murders. This put me off a bit, because I had no memory at all of these characters and had to look up which book they were in, yet Griffiths clearly expects us to remember them.

The characters are Edwin, a gay man in his 80s; Natalka, a young Ukrainian immigrant; and Benedict, Natalka’s boyfriend, who used to be a monk. Natalka runs a care-giving business, but since the events of the previous book, she has also opened a detective agency, and Edwin is her partner. Benedict runs a coffee shop.

Although the death of Melody Chambers has been found to be of natural causes, her daughters hire Natalka to investigate: Minnie and Harmony are convinced their stepfather, Alan Warner, killed Melody by replacing her blood pressure medicine, and they produce as proof a snippet that sounds like she was afraid for her life. The only problem is that Melody was a writer, so the snippet could be part of a novel.

Edwin is an obituary reader, so he has already noticed the death of Malcolm Collins, an obituary writer. As they look into things further, they begin to notice that several writers have died, and they all seem to be linked to a writers’ retreat at Battle. So, Edwin and Benedict sign up for the retreat. On the retreat, another participant, Sue, drowns in the pond. Her fiancé had died a few years before.

I think Griffiths depends a little too much on our memories of these characters to develop them further, and I didn’t have any, although of course things are going on in their private lives. I felt either that I didn’t know them very well or that I was relatively indifferent to them. Also, there are so many suspects in this case that I ended up not even trying to guess what was going on.

I’m beginning to think I’m over Griffiths. She ended the series I liked best, and I just haven’t been that interested in her other ones.

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Review 2689: Jane Austen in 41 Objects

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Oxford historian Kathryn Sutherland has provided an unusual glimpse of Jane Austen in Jane Austen in 41 Objects. It of course explores how little we know of Jane Austen, even to not having a proper portrait of her. In the book, Sutherland assembles 41 objects that have some connection to Austen and discusses each object and its relevance. These objects extend from things she actually touched or owned, like the table she wrote at, her pelisse, or a lock of her hair, to contemporary items such as the check stub of her publisher showing a payment, a silhouette of her mother made in honor of her birth, to more modern objects such as Colin Firth’s “wet” shirt or illustrations of costumes from the first stage production of Pride and Prejudice. Some of them are touching.

The Introduction to the book is scholarly and sometimes opaque. I was hoping as I read it that the body of the book wasn’t like that, and it was not. It was very readable except for a few sentences in the last chapter that get a little esoteric.

The format of each short chapter is to show the photo of the object, tell what is known about it, and in the last paragraph quickly describe its provenance and where it is located now.

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Review 2686: Death in Disguise

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The early programs of Midsomer Murders seem to have stuck fairly faithfully to the original novels. Luckily for my enjoyment, I haven’t remembered all the details. For this one, I thought I remembered who the killer was but got confused by details I forgot.

The novel begins with the death of James Carter, resident of the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse, who has fallen down the stairs. The death is found to be accidental.

As in the previous books, Graham takes her time developing the setting and characters before getting to the crime. We return to the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse, a commune espousing concepts derived, sort of, from various religions and even folklore. There we meet a collection of eccentrics, some of them “mystics,” under the leadership of the Master. Although the Master may very well be truly devout, Graham has a lot of fun with these characters.

A major event is taking place. Sylvia, now named Suhami, is the daughter of a filthy (in more ways that one) rich businessman, Guy Gamelin. And he is a brute, but he adores his daughter. Suhami, though, has been hiding from him at the commune. But it is her birthday, the day she comes into a huge trust fund. She wants to give it to the commune, but the Master has talked her into seeing her parents and has invited them to her birthday party. Guy hasn’t even told his wife, Felicity, about the invitation, and he shows up early hoping to see Sylvia. But Suhami refuses, so he goes back to his hotel and essentially rapes another commune visitor, Trixie.

That night Trixie isn’t at the party, but the other members are. They are May and Arno, two older residents (Arno is madly in love with May); Ken and Heather, an ineffectual married couple; Janet, an older woman with a crush on young Trixie; Christopher, a photographer and recent arrival who is courting Suhami; Tom, a mentally challenged or mentally ill (Graham’s characters seem to confuse the two) young man who worships the Master; and the Master himself. Felicity shows up late blotto with drugs.

During a regression to Roman Britain by May, she has a strong reaction that makes everyone panic. When she is revived, they all see that the Master has been stabbed to death. Barnaby is put on the case.

Barnaby is dismayed by how the different pieces of information fail to lead anywhere. Most of the commune members think Guy Gamelin murdered the Master, but Barnaby is not so sure. In any case, Guy dies of a heart attack that night.

Fairly early on, Barnaby finds out that Christopher is using someone else’s name, because the actual photographer of that name gets engaged to a socialite. “Christopher” explains that he is really Andrew Carter, the nephew of the man who fell down the stairs months before. He has come to investigate, thinking there has been foul play.

Although Graham has a lot of fun at the expense of advocates of New Age ideas (not real ones, I don’t think), she provides an epilogue that is more forgiving. Except for one too many fat jokes (told by the vile Sergeant Troy, of course), I found this one entertaining.

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Review 2685: The Marlow Murder Club

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For some reason, I thought I had read The Marlow Murder Club until I began watching the series on TV. Then I realized I hadn’t.

It begins when Judith Potts, a widow in her 70s who lives on the Thames, is skinny dipping (I believe Brits call it “wild swimming”) near the house of her neighbor, Stefan Dunwoody. She hears someone shout and then a gunshot. She tries to pull herself into a blue canoe at the bank but is unable to, so she returns home and calls the police. They find nothing, and no one appears to be at home. But later, Judith returns to Stefan’s property and finds him near the water, shot in the head.

Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik isn’t quite ready to admit foul play. Perhaps Stefan committed suicide and his gun fell into the water. Judith, we learn, is a crossword setter, so she’s not about to abandon a puzzle. She finds out that Stefan had a dispute with Elliot Howard, an antiques dealer, and was threatening him with the police, although some people seem to believe it’s Stefan who is crooked, not Elliot. In trying to learn more about Elliot, Judith goes to the church, where she meets Becks Starling, the vicar’s wife.

Then another man is killed, Iqbal Kassam, a taxi driver. One murder in Marlow is unusual, two unheard of. Judith thinks they may be linked, especially as there are similarities. At the scene, she meets Suzie Harris, Iqbal’s dog walker. Soon, the three women team up to find the killer.

This novel moves along well enough, but I thought it was just okay. I had a few problems with details—for one thing, why no one could figure out a way to get around a downed tree except pulling it when there was an emergency—climb over it maybe and use someone else’s car to continue? And although the writing was okay, I spotted a couple of redundancies within a short period. I figured out the solution well before the end of the book, and I noticed that at the end, no one had told Suzie what happened, but she behaved as if they had. That is, the author didn’t catch this. Or the editor, maybe.

So, I say ho hum. But short, zippy chapters, sure to appeal to many readers.

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Review 2682: The Woman in the Hall

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Molly and Jay Blake have led a straitened but normal childhood until Jay is hospitalized and needs care that Lorna Blake cannot afford. So, she has Molly dress in her shabby gym dress and takes her to beg at a rich person’s house. Molly is mortified. Lorna has an unusual relationship with her servant, Susan, and we understand from a conversation that this is not the first time Lorna has done this.

Jay recovers and life returns to normal. However, periodically Lorna gets restless and begins approaching rich people, telling them outrageous stories and usually coming away with money. She is a professional con woman who uses the excuse of needing money for her daughters, when she is clearly excited by this life. In fact, in some way she makes herself believe her lies. For example, years after she lies about Jay wanting to play the violin, she says that Jay used to beg her for luxuries, including the violin. In fact, both girls are horrified by their mother’s behavior and seldom ask for anything.

Lorna has done things in the past that have made her enemies. Captain Alexander Muir-Leslie’s engagement to Sylvia, whom he adores, is broken when he tries to convince her that Lorna cheated her. So, he begins trying to track Lorna down. He travels to America because Lorna has told people that her husband, Neil Inglefield, deserted her and her daughters. But Neil Inglefield is her stepbrother, not her husband. In company with his friend, Shirley Dennison, whose romance with Neil’s brother Lorna broke up years ago, Neil sets out to find Lorna. Instead, he finds Molly.

The first part of the novel, dealing with the girl’s earlier lives, seemed to me to become a bit repetitive after a while, as Lorna pulls her cons and then turns her stories back on her children to justify herself. Later, with the introduction of Muir-Leslie, the novel begins to be more about the effects on other people’s lives of her lies. This change immediately made the novel more interesting, culminating in a grotesque betrayal of one of her daughters.

I’ve always been interested in novels about sociopaths, and Lorna is an early portrayal. Also, the words “child abuse” are never spoken, and perhaps in 1939 Lorna’s behavior wouldn’t be understood that way, but it is now. This novel is a compelling character study. There are characters to like in this novel, but Lorna isn’t one of them.

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Review 2681: A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth

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A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth is a collection of short stories that I read for my Pulitzer Prize project. I sometimes have problems reading short stories, but I found most of these engrossing. Most of them were about scientific curiosity and the characters’ actual or potential legacy.

“Death of the Pugilist, or the Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw” is set during the early 19th century. It is about how a burly lad becomes a prize fighter. These were the days of no-holds-barred bare-knuckle fights.

Another historical story, “The Ecstasy of Alfred Russel Wallace,” is about an early collector of bug specimens who begins to draw conclusions similar to Darwin’s about the survival of the fittest. He writes to Darwin hoping for a scholarly exchange, but perhaps Darwin is worried about which of them thought of the theory first. This one has really beautiful prose.

“For the Union Dead” is a contemporary story about the narrator’s uncle, who became involved in Civil War re-enactments.

“The Second Doctor Service” is a letter to a medical journal from a 19th century man who begins having periods of blackouts and thinks another self is trying to take him over.

“The Miraculous Discovery of Psammetichus I” is based on a story by Herodotus. It’s a series of descriptions of experiments supposedly performed by a curious Pharoah, most of which involve having children raised by animals.

“On Growing Ferns and Other Plants in Glass Cases, in the Midst of the Smoke of London” is set in the 19th century during the height of the industrial revolution and major air pollution. A widow’s young son begins suffering from severe asthma, and the doctors fail to treat it successfully. She eventually gets a better idea.

“The Line Agent Pascal” is set in the 19th century South American jungle. Pascal is a telegraph operator who likes the isolation of his position but forms a sort of family with the other operators. There is one in particular whom he has never met but for whom he feels an affinity.

“On the Cause of Winds and Waves, &c” is a letter to her sister by a 19th century balloonist in France. Observing a strange phenomenon in the heavens, she is asked to report about it to the scientific Académie, but she doesn’t realize she has only been asked to be ridiculed.

“A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth” is a record by a man who has been incarcerated in an insane asylum but is probably OCD or on the spectrum instead of insane.

Most of these stories have some kind of uplifting ending. Maybe I enjoyed them so much because many of them felt like short historical novels. I liked them a lot.

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Review 2680: Fenwomen

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Fenwomen is the very first book printed by Virago, an ethnographic study of women living in a remote village in the English fens in the 1970s. By interviewing women of all ages and situations, Mary Chamberlain, now Emeritus Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University, recorded memories of conditions for women as far back as the late 19th century.

The timing of this book isn’t a coincidence, because it came about along with a new movement toward women’s liberation when some colleges and universities were beginning to set up departments in women’s studies. In fact, I found the updated Introduction, written in 2010, just as interesting as the book itself. It tells the story of the original reception of the book and how some journalists and critics so misrepresented its contents that it broke the trust Chamberlain had gained with the inhabitants of the village. I assume the men did this because they felt threatened by the idea of a feminist study.

The work explores women’s lives—their work, religion, entertainments, family life, and so on—in this isolated village, very primitive living conditions in the past, limited work opportunities, isolation from transportation, etc. It’s not a very long book, and my Full Circle Editions edition ends with about 20 beautiful photographs of the area and people by Justin Partyka.

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Review 2678: The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography

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Although I’ve read more than one biography of Jane Austen, this graphic biography contained insights I hadn’t read before. That’s probably not surprising, since Janine Barchas is an internationally renowned Austen scholar.

Using information from letters and quotations from Austen’s novels, this graphic biography follows Austen from 1796 until her death. In brighter colors, it contains a few scenes from her novels as in Austen’s imagination and some “Easter eggs’ of scenes from movies. I caught a couple of obvious ones, but I’m sure there were more.

The illustrations are in a naïve, slightly ugly style, but the characters are clearly identifiable, which isn’t always the case in graphic books.

I found this work entertaining and informative. It contains a “glossary” that provides more information for the interested.

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Review 2673: Saint Peter’s Fair

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Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you all the best in 2026!

Saint Peter’s Fair is the fourth book in Ellis Peters’ Cadfael series. Only a year has elapsed since the beginning of the series, so it is the summer of 1139. The town of Shrewsbury is preparing for a big event, St. Peter’s Fair, that draws merchants from all over England and parts of Europe.

The proceeds of the fees for the fair traditionally go to the monastery. But this year a group of guild members appeal to the new abbot, Radulfus, that the abbey withhold a percentage of the fees to give to the town, which is still badly damaged from the siege by King Stephen the year before. Abbot Radulfus, who is worried about infringing on the abbey’s rights, declines.

Later, the guild members’ sons, led by Philip Corviser, ask the merchants if they will withhold a portion of the fees to give to the town. Of course, they decline. Philip approaches the wealthiest merchant to make a point and gets bashed on the head by accident. The boys riot and throw goods into the water. Thomas of Bristol’s beautiful young niece, Emma, almost gets knocked into the water, but she is rescued by the handsome young noble, Ivo Corbière.

That night, Thomas does not return from setting up his booth. Emma goes to the undersheriff, Cadfael’s friend Hugh Beringer, because she is alarmed. Thomas is found dead in the river, stripped bare.

Since Philip Corviser went out and got drunk after the tiff with Thomas, he can’t account for his time. So, the sheriff arrests him. But it’s not too much longer before another merchant, a glover, is found murdered in his booth.

Abbot Radulfus has asked Cadfael to report back to him on the situation, but of course Cadfael takes a more active part.

Recently another blogger told me that she had quit reading the Cadfael series because it got so involved with the political situation. But so far that hasn’t bothered me, although sometimes I don’t like it when mysteries become more to do with espionage. Again, I was fairly certain of the murderer from the start, and I was right, but I’m finding the history and the characters interesting.

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