Tag: England

Review 2766: The Pendragon Legend

~ whatmeread ~ Leave a comment

When I was younger, I used to like satire. Now I think I’ve lost the taste for it. In any case, The Pendragon Legend took me much longer to read than it should have.

János Bátky is a young Hungarian scholar in England interested in such subjects as alchemy and Rosicrucianism. At a party he meets the Earl of Gwynedd, who invites him to visit. In his subsequent investigations of the family, he learns of a history of alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and witchcraft, and legends of a midnight horseman, Asaph Pendragon. He is interested to explore the family library.

At the university library, he encounters an athletic simpleton named George Maloney, who doesn’t know how to ask for a book or what book he might want. This man introduces Osborne Pendragon, the Earl’s nephew. Osborne happens to be traveling to Wales to stay with his uncle at the same time as János, and he has invited Maloney. In the meantime, they introduce him to Eileen St. Claire, who offers to drive him there. Some of these characters misunderstand what kind of doctor János is, which has ramifications for the plot.

Once János and his friends arrive at Llanvygan, the Earl’s home (with abandoned Pendragon Castle hanging over the valley), he finds that the Earl is no longer welcoming. This reception is because Mrs. St. Claire has managed to make him look like an enemy. Not only is the Earl engaged in a legal battle with another family for the estate, but there is also a lot of other stuff going on, including appearances of the midnight rider.

Honestly, Szerb has so much going on in the novel that I stopped trying to keep track of the plot. This novel was one he wrote after spending a year in postdoctoral research in England. Among other things, he spoofs Masons, Rosicrucianism, British folklore, British upper-class country life, and gothic and mystery novels. I found it a bit juvenile, frankly, although I’m sure he had a good time writing it. At one point, we’re subjected to about 10 pages from a supposed 18th century manuscript that starts with some silly Masonic rites and didn’t seem to have much relationship to the plot. Similarly, he occasionally throws in a character who seems like he or she is going to be important only to have that person never reappear. He’s probably doing these things on purpose.

My general comment is that there was so much going on that I stopped trying to follow it. Also, what’s not going on is much character development.

Related Posts

Over Sea, Under Stone

Ferdydurke

They Were Counted

Review 2765: The Leper of Saint Giles

~ whatmeread ~ 2 Comments

Cadfael’s best assistant, Brother Mark, has been reassigned to care for the leper colony outside Shrewsbury, so Cadfael has been struggling along trying to train his new assistant, Brother Oswin, who is willing but all thumbs. In any case, even the lepers are enthralled by the upcoming event at the abbey, the marriage of Huon de Domville and Iveta de Massard.

Cadfael is just as interested to watch the principals arrive the day before the wedding as anyone else. He is surprised to see that Huon de Domville is nearly 60 years old and looks hard and dominating. Iveta de Massard’s guardians, the Picards, seem calculating and shrewd, but Iveta herself is beautiful, very young, and looks as innocent as a child. The watching monks and lepers feel sorry for her.

A little later, Cadfael interrupts a meeting between Iveta and Joscelin Lucy, a young squire in Domville’s service. They are in love, and Joscelin is trying to convince her to run off with him. After Agnes Picard removes Iveta, Joscelin tells Cadfael that Iveta is the granddaughter of the famous knight Guimar de Massard, who was captured during the Crusades and died but was so revered by his captors that he was buried by them with honors. However, she was left an orphan, and her guardians have been milking her estate and are marrying her off to the highest bidder.

Later, Domville accuses Joscelin of theft and produces a necklace from his saddlebag. Joscelin escapes the sheriff’s men and is hidden by his fellow squire Simon. However, later he creeps away from where Simon has hidden him and is helped by a tall old leper to hide in the leper colony.

In the evening, Domville goes off on his horse and fails to return for the wedding. He is found strangled. Cadfael finds a rare plant in his hat, one that grows only a few places in Wales, and asks permission of his abbott to try to find where Domville went. Of course, everyone assumes he was killed by Joscelin, and the hunt is on.

The plot of this novel seemed awfully familiar to me, similar to that of both Monk’s Hood and One Corpse Too Many, in which an innocent young man is being framed. Further, the story didn’t have very many secrets for me, and especially I spotted a secret identity as soon as the person was mentioned. I also knew who the person framing Joscelin was.

One facet that I have found interesting in this series so far is the historical background of the war between King Stephen and Queen Maud, but nothing much is going on during this period. This is all to say that I’m willing to continue this series, but this is the first book in it that has disappointed me a little.

Related Posts

Saint Peter’s Fair

Monk’s Hood

One Corpse Too Many

Review 2764: Touch and Go

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

Plucky Sarah Trent takes a job as a governess/companion for 18-year-old Lucilla Hildred, an orphan living with two cousins, Geoffrey Hildred and Marina Hildred, and Geoffrey’s son Ricky. Marina is old-fashioned and tends to go on and on about her family history, but Sarah is a good listener. Geoffrey clearly likes her but reminds her of a farmer.

Sarah soon becomes aware that something strange is going on. On the way back from her interview, her borrowed car runs out of gas. Looking for a house or somewhere she can borrow gas, she finds a deserted estate. It turns out to be Holme Fallow, the property belonging to Lucilla, but Sarah sees someone enter the deserted house, apparently a burglar. When she thinks he’s seen her, she runs out and later gets a ride into town.

Sarah’s friend Bertrand Darnac takes a liking to Lucilla and begins coming around. Also around is John Brown, a client whom Geoffrey has given permission to paint around the grounds. Sarah feels he is mysterious but is drawn to him.

Her first night there, Lucilla asks her to switch rooms. In the middle of the night, Sarah hears something scratching and scrambling at the window. When she talks to Lucilla about it, the girl seems relieved. But Lucilla keeps having accidents, and each time she won’t talk about what happened.

Could someone be trying to kill Lucilla? Or, as Geoffrey admits to Sarah, is Lucilla unstable?

This is another good one from Wentworth—a romantic suspense novel with the emphasis on the suspense. Although I didn’t have much doubt about who the bad guy was, John Brown’s identity is a mystery, and it is interesting to see how the evildoer will be thwarted.

Related Posts

The Arlington Inheritance

The Coldstone

Beggar’s Choice

Review 2763: The Lark Shall Sing

~ whatmeread ~ 4 Comments

The other day a friend and I got on the topic of Elizabeth Cadell. She is an infallible read for a light-as-fluff experience. Most of her novels, written between the 1940’s and the 80’s, involve some kind of romance and sometimes a mild mystery. But she creates engaging characters.

This discussion reminded me that Cadell’s relatives had reprinted all her books—some not quite as good as others—so I decided to poke around and compare their list with the selection of mostly used books that I own. In poking around, I discovered that one of my favorites, Six Impossible Things, was not the second book about the Wayne family but the third! This meant, of course, that I had to buy the second and read all three. The Lark Shall Sing is the first. (Just an update: This whole discussion took place this spring, and I reread this book at the end of May. I just realized that although I read the first two, I forgot to read the third one. I’ll have to do that next.)

Lucille Wayne has come home to sell the family house, despite the recommendation to wait awhile by her godfather, Mr. Milward. She is from a large family now consisting of three young adult siblings and three child siblings. After their mother’s death, they stayed in the house a year, all except Nicholas, who was in the military, but Lucille convinced them to lease it for a year because they couldn’t afford it. Lucille had a job in Cornwall, and Roselle, having finished a secretarial course, was itching to get a job in London.

The year has elapsed, and the tenants, who once considered buying the house, were called back to South Africa. Lucille is engaged and plans to live with her fiancé Digby and his mother in Cornwall. Eleven- and nine-year-old Simon and Dominic are at school and live with their Aunt Mary, and ten-year-old Julia is at school and can spend the holidays with Lucille and Digby. Lucille has sent each of her siblings a letter instructing them to let her know which of their things they would like to keep.

Almost half the book is about them all coming home. Because as soon as they get Lucille’s letter, they all leave immediately for home, most of them with little money or preparation, to try to convince Lucille not to sell. On the way, the three children and Roselle are helped by three total strangers who somehow end up coming along. Roselle nearly faints when she gets off the train, and Miss Cornhill jumps off to help her, only to have her things go off in the train. Simon and Dominic arrive at the London station at rush hour, and Dominic is torn from Simon’s grasp and pushed onto the train while Simon can get nowhere near it. Simon is helped by Robert Debrett, who picks him up so he can signal to Dominic to continue, and drives him to the other end of the journey so he can meet Dominic’s train—in his limousine, because he’s a famous actor. Julia, exhausted and riding a bike too big for her, hits Italian brush salesman Pietro smack in the back and ruins his suit and brushes, but he puts her back on the bike and wheels her home. Nicholas arrives on a rickety motorcycle. Now, all everyone has to do is convince Lucille to keep the house.

This is a lovely book full of likable characters with some touching scenes, particularly the reunion between Simon and his dog, Long John. Of course, Lucille dislikes Robert on sight while Robert decides he’s sticking around to see if he can’t change her mind. What fun!

Related Posts

Money To Burn

Consider the Lilies

Death Among Friends

Review 2762: The Clocks

~ whatmeread ~ 5 Comments

Sheila Webb is a stenographer who has been sent by her agency to Miss Pebmarsh’s house and told to walk in if no one answers the door. When she does, she finds the body of a man dying on the floor. As she’s standing there, Miss Pebmarsh comes in from outside. She is blind, and she’s just about to step in the blood when Sheila screams and rushes outside.

She runs right into the arms of Colin Lamb, who is looking for an address on the crescent that he can’t find. He goes in, finds the body, and calls the police. It just so happens that he is friends with Detective Hardcastle, who arrives.

The dead man, who is elderly and well dressed, has no identification, just a business card that proves to be bogus. On the mantelpiece are a bunch of clocks that Miss Pebmarsh says are not hers, all set to the wrong time, 4:13. Miss Pebmarsh says she has never seen the man before.

Colin, it turns out, is not a policeman but is in a related service, I presume intelligence. He begins helping Hardcastle investigate, and he also consults his friend Hercule Poirot.

I had no clue what was going on in this one, which was a combination of standard mystery and espionage. An added aspect was Colin falling immediately for Sheila when there is still a question of whether she’s involved in the crime.

Although this isn’t by any means my favorite Christie, it has a lot going on and a likable hero. I enjoyed it.

Related Posts

The Man in the Brown Suit

Passenger to Frankfurt

The Seven Dials Mystery

Review 2759: Pastel

~ whatmeread ~ 2 Comments

A few months ago, I found there were several of Georgette Heyer’s books that I hadn’t heard of much less read. I managed to get ahold of a few, but so far, I’m finding there’s a reason why they haven’t been reprinted.

A puzzle about my copy of Pastel (not the one pictured) from Buccaneer Books is its listed copyright date. I wanted to see how old Heyer was when she wrote the book, so I looked at the copyright date, which says 1910! Heyer was only eight years old then! Her Wikipedia page says her writing career began in 1922, and a Google of the book’s publication date shows 1929, and judging by this cover, she was already well-known. So, where they got that date, I don’t know.

Now to the plot. Frances Stornaway loves her younger sister, Evelyn, but she can’t help feeling that she wants to be more like her. Frances is pretty, but Evelyn is beautiful. Evelyn does everything effortlessly, while Frances tries hard but doesn’t do as well. Evelyn is sparkling and outgoing and attracts people while Frances is shyer. Only their old friend Norman Acre doesn’t prefer Evelyn. He is in love with Frances, but Frances is too romantic to want to marry an old friend.

Frances’s godmother invites just Frances for a visit. Lady Twyford has been matchmaking, so Frances is met at the station by a man who looks to her like a Viking god, Oliver Fayre. She falls in love with him at first sight, and he seems to like her. However, when he comes to call on her, he meets Evelyn, and soon they are engaged. Frances keeps up a brave exterior so that no one knows she cares for Oliver.

Frances eventually decides she’s never going to be in love again. She is fond of Norman, so she decides to marry him.

This novel shows none of the sparkling wit of Heyer’s historical romances. I believe she was hoping to write a realistic book about a certain level of society. As in her other contemporary novels (not counting her mysteries), there are a few “intellectual” conversations meant to reflect what young people are discussing in those days. One was a pretty good satire of an avant-garde art scene, while the second was heaped with sexist assumptions made by both men and women.

But basically, the story follows Frances through very mundane scenes and conversations. The book is well written but predictable.

Related Posts

Instead of the Thorn

Helen

The Unfinished Clue

Review 2757: The Hollow

~ whatmeread ~ 5 Comments

For the weekend, relatives are gathering at The Hollow, the home of Lord and Lady Angkatell. Midge Hardcastle is already there. She’s a pleasant girl who works an unpleasant job as a clerk in a dress shop rather than depend on or borrow from her relatives. As a child, she and her cousins spent their summers at Ainswick, Lucy Angkatell’s hereditary estate, but it was entailed and now belongs to another cousin, Edward Angkatell. Midge loves Edward and Ainswick, but Edward loves another cousin, Henrietta Savernake.

Henrietta has not left town for the Hollow yet, because she is working on a sculpture. Her cousin John Christow is finishing his work at his doctor’s practice before he leaves for The Hollow with his wife, Gerda. Gerda worships her husband but at the same time seems terrified of doing anything that displeases him. John is described as a person with good looks and charisma who is about to make a breakthrough on an important medical discovery. He is also having an affair with Henrietta. The other visitor that weekend is David Angkatell, a young man in the throes of university superiority.

Once they have all arrived, a neighbor thrusts her way into an evening gathering. She is Veronica Gray, a famous actress and an old fiancée of John Christow whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. She has made the excuse of needing matches to interrupt their evening. John Christow has recently been dwelling on the time they spent together, so he sees her home and does not return until 3 AM.

In his absence, John finds that Veronica assumes he will drop everything and return with her to Hollywood, but he suddenly sees her for the grasping and selfish woman she is and refuses.

The next day, new neighbor Hercule Poirot comes over for lunch and finds what he first assumes is a tasteless tableau set up to greet him. John Christow is lying bleeding by the pool, and Gerda, who is regarded by everyone as slow, is holding a gun. At the same moment, Henrietta, Edward, and Lady Angkatell appear from different directions. John, dying, says Henrietta’s name. Henrietta attempts to take the gun from Gerda, and it is dropped into the pool.

Inspector Grange is inclined to believe that Gerda killed John, but Gerda says she found him and picked up the gun. Poirot thinks things are more complicated than they appear, and as it turns out, the gun Gerda found is not the one that killed her husband.

This is a situation with lots of undercurrents. Lucy Angkatell is outwardly warm and scatty but perhaps ruthless. Poirot begins to believe that the family knows who the murderer is.

The biggest problem I had with this novel isn’t to do with the mystery so much as the veneration everyone has for John Christow, who may have been a great doctor but was also completely selfish and oblivious to what others were feeling. Maybe Christie was drawing an accurate sketch of a particular type of person, but why are all these women in love with him?

However, the mystery was difficult. I had my eye on one character, but I was wrong. If a mystery writer can fool me, that’s all to the good. As usual, Christie’s characterization is excellent.

Related Posts

Sparkling Cyanide

Appointment with Death

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

Review 2750: A Most Agreeable Murder

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

Julia Seales clearly had a good time writing this novel, which is absolutely silly and apparently a spoof of 19th century novels. It’s too bad, then, that she bothered so little to get the details right. It’s the second novel I’ve read recently that doesn’t bother with that, so why, I ask, place it in a historical context? Is this kind of laziness a trend?

Beatrice Steele has a secret. She is fascinated by crime and follows the exploits of Sir Huxley and his assistant, Inspector Vivek Drake, by stealing her father’s newspaper. She must hide this activity, because she lives in Swampshire, which has stern rules for the behavior of females.

The Steele family is preparing for a ball that evening at Stabmort Park, hereditary home of the Ashworths. A guest of honor is Edmund Croaksworth, a wealthy gentleman who was friends with Beatrice’s best friend Daniel Ashworth before the Croaksworths broke off the connection. Edmund’s father has died, and he is ready to resume the connection.

The Steele family is not only broke, but if they don’t produce a male heir before Mr. Steele dies, their property will go to their hated cousin, Martin Grub. So, Mrs. Steele’s hopes rest with her beautiful second daughter Louisa, who she thinks will fascinate Edmund Croaksworth into an immediate proposal. Beatrice herself assumes she will marry Daniel, but neither of them seems to be in a hurry.

I guess you can tell from the names that Seale’s sense of humor is not exactly subtle. She finally gets us to the ball while managing to get just about every detail of a 19th century ball wrong, including when soup would be available and how many guests a ball generally entails (hint—more than 16). There, Beatrice is surprised to recognize among the guests Inspector Vivek Drake—a person whom I had already guessed is to Sir Huxley as Laura Holt was to Remington Steele (that is, if you’re not old enough to remember, the real solver of the crimes), but Beatrice doesn’t believe that.

During the dance, Beatrice finds out Grub’s dastardly plan to have her father declared incompetent so that he can take the estate earlier, and since Mr. Steele is an idiot who is constantly playing practical jokes on people, this is a possibility.

Then Edmund Croaksworth is murdered, poisoned apparently during a card game that no one will admit playing. Inspector Drake is asked to solve the murder because the entire party is stranded in the house by a terrible storm. Beatrice is deputized to help him stay within the bounds of propriety.

I definitely didn’t share the author’s sense of humor here, although I might have had more patience with the novel if she could have been a little up on her subject. To successfully make fun of Victorian customs and manners, I think you have to know what they are first.

The mystery itself was all over the place, designed to get as many ridiculous details in as possible. Still, I at least finished the book.

Related Posts

Murder After Christmas

Beginning with a Bash

Babel: An Arcane History

Review 2748: Western Lane

~ whatmeread ~ 5 Comments

Eleven-year-old Gopi’s mother died a few months ago, and her father is finding it hard to cope with his grief and his daughters. On a visit to their aunt and uncle in Edinburgh, Aunt Ranjan remarks that the girls are running wild. Then she and Uncle Pavan suggest that he leave one of his daughters with them, since they cannot have children. Their father decides instead that they need something to occupy them, and he begins teaching them to play squash.

A lot of information about squash ensues. Gopi turns out to be good at the game, and she begins training at times with a boy named Ged.

The book deals with the girls’ grief over their mother’s death and with their father’s depression, as he begins missing work and spending most of his time at Western Lane, the exercise center. None of the girls are happy to see Papa getting closer with Ged’s mother.

This novel is full of inarticulate characters, so at times I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. But it is a touching, powerful story with floundering but sympathetic characters. The writing is fluid and vivid. I read this for my Booker Prize project.

Related Posts

Looking for Alaska

Levels of the Game

Open

Review 2746: The Jealous One

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

Celia Fremlin does it again! This time, a puzzling, suspenseful story in which you’re never sure how much to like the main character.

Rosamund awakens from a feverish dream in which she pushes Lindy off a cliff. When she awakens, she is still ill with the flu but relieved to find it was a dream. Her husband Geoffrey bursts in, saying that Lindy is missing. Then the novel returns to the day they met Lindy.

Rosamund and Geoffrey are happily married. Maybe they’re not the nicest people in the world, because they enjoy making fun of their neighbors, but they share many tastes and like talking things over.

Rosamund’s first glimpse of their new neighbor is of a dowdy woman with ugly furniture and a Pekinese (they prefer cats). They both agree there’s plenty to amuse themselves there. Rosamund sends Geoffrey over to invite the neighbor to dinner, but instead she invites them.

When they arrive, the room looks lovely and Lindy is attractive, charismatic, and outgoing. But Rosamund can’t help noticing that there are hidden barbs in what Lindy says, especially toward her sister, Eileen.

Already by the end of the first evening, Rosamund realizes there will be none of the usual post-party discussions. Geoffrey is enchanted.

The friendship continues with Geoffrey spending time gardening for Lindy and Lindy popping into their house at all hours. She calls them Geoff and Rosie, which Rosamund hates. Suddenly, there’s nothing funny about owning a Pekinese or growing tulips (which the couple used to dislike). Geoffrey’s pride in not owning a car but enjoying walking or taking a train disappears because Lindy has a car. Geoffrey is either with Lindy or Lindy is with them. Even Rosamund’s particular pleasure in visiting her mother-in-law is disturbed by Lindy first offering them a ride and then by her being included in their visits.

Rosamund is determined to show no jealousy, but she can see her marriage eroding, while Geoffrey remains blind to any problems. One of Lindy’s favorite topics of conversation is to blame the wives for any problems with a marriage. Even working wives, she says, should have dinner on the table for their husbands and be sure to make housework look effortless so their husbands don’t feel bad about not helping!!!

Rosamund is back and forth on whether Lindy is trying to ruin her marriage or is just oblivious. No one else seems to notice anything amiss. Everyone loves Lindy, but Rosamund is starting to hate her.

Returning to the present, Lindy remains missing, and Rosamund realizes she can’t remember the events of Tuesday, the first day of her flu, past a morning party she attended at a friend’s house. She thinks she was in bed, but then why are her shoes muddy? And why did she find Lindy’s new purse with her own coat on the bedroom floor?

Rosamund begins to worry that her nasty dream might be real. Did she kill Lindy? Surely not.

The suspense builds as we sympathize more and more with Rosamund and begin to see Lindy as a malevolent force. But did Rosamund kill her?

As always, Fremlin takes her time building her characters and situations, but she’s really good at hooking our attention and reeling us in for the dramatic finish. I’m happy to see that Faber is apparently publishing three more books by her that I haven’t read yet.

Related Posts

Uncle Paul

The Hours Before Dawn

The Long Shadow