Tag: England

Review 2774: #RIPXXI! Murder at the Spirit Lounge

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Another book for RIPXXI! Ex-nun Nora Breen encounters her friend Detective Inspector Hilary Rideout, and he asks her to come with him to the home of Doreen Chimes, a spiritualist. She has made a complaint of a theft, and Rideout asks Nora to come along as his “chaperone.”

Nora is interested to find that several people think Mrs. Chimes is legitimate, including Rideout. He is invited to a séance at her house to which Nora, as an ex-nurse, is summoned because the medium has collapsed. Mrs. Chimes is dead, having collapsed while using a planchette. Attending the event are Rideout, Lady and Miss Baybrooke, Colonel Fulford, Freddie Grace, and his unexpected date Sybil Sparkes. Mrs. Chimes died as the planchette spelled out “Eve.”

Nora begins to suspect foul play because she has noticed strange red patterns on Mrs. Chimes’ hand. It seems as if someone at the séance must have done something, because no one else was in the room. Before they get very far in the investigation, though, there is a bizarre incident at the Baybrookes’ hotel. Nora witnesses Miss Baybrooke running wildly through the hotel. She seems to be shouting at no one. She finally throws herself out the window, but Nora spots a spectral-looking soldier on the fire-escape. Lady Baybrooke is found dead in bed, her asthma inhaler filled with powder.

In trying to find an Eve, Nora and Rideout learn that Miss Baybrooke was engaged to a flyer during the war, Evelyn Leyton, a patient in the hospital that the Baybrookes’ estate was requisitioned for. He had mental problems, and after Lady Baybrooke made her break it off, he committed suicide.

As the investigation continues, more links are found between Evelyn Leyton and the séance attendees, including Rideout, who knew him. Someone seems to be taking revenge for his death, as the attendees begin dying strange deaths. Nora becomes concerned for Rideout.

This is the second Nora Breen novel. Although I prefer some of Kidd’s other books, I like Nora and Rideout and some of Nora’s friends. The damp seaside town is evocative. I figured out the name of the killer fairly quickly, but the killer was in disguise, and I didn’t figure out who that person was. I found the novel entertaining.

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Review 2772: The House at Old Vine

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The House at Old Vine is the second book in Norah Lofts’ Suffolk trilogy. Like the first book, it changes narrators, but as each section is considerably shorter than the first section of the first book, the effect is of linked short stories.

The novels follow a house and a family through time, beginning in the Middle Ages. This one begins sometime before 1496 and ends in 1679 and has half a dozen narrators. Each section is separated by an Interlude, which briefly tells more about what happened next.

In 1496, Josiana Greenwood tells the story of her life and her doomed love. Some of the characters from the previous book are still in the periphery. Josiana is a bastard child whose mother refused to tell her parents the identity of her child’s father. Her grandparents have treated both her and her mother like the lowest of laborers, but when she is 13, her grandfather wants to sell her off to a much older man who disgusts her. To protect her, her mother takes her to the nuns at Clevely, where she is educated and meets her true love. We know from the beginning that her love, Walter Rancon, is going to be burned by the church as a Lollard, but the story goes back in time to divulge other facts and secrets, including the connection to the family of the original serf who accumulated the property, Martin Reed.

In 1565, the background of the story is the reign of Elizabeth and a Catholic priest in hiding. Elizabeth Kentwoode is a child who has been thoroughly spoiled by her grandfather. She is quite a vicious child, and she shows what she will do to keep her string of blue beads.

In 1620, Elizabeth Kentwoode, now a redoubtable woman sometimes called Madam, selects Barbara Hatton to be the wife of her nephew John. Barbara is in love, but shortly after the wedding, Elizabeth lets her know that John has a long-time lover, a bar maid, who looks a lot like Barbara.

In 1645 during the English Civil War, Anthony Flowerdew is a spy for Parliament trying to find Royalist supporters when he comes to stay at the Old Vine, now a respectable inn which had first been run by Madam and now by Mrs. Kentwoode (Barbara). Anthony falls in love with Barbara, now a widow with a son, and decides to quit being a spy.

In 1670, Ethelreda Benedict is a girl from an island in the fens who has barely ever met anyone besides her father when he dies. She has to leave the island and eventually gets a position at Old Vine, now a boys’ school run by Anthony Flowerdew and his stepson Chris Kentwoode. A sort of leech on the place is Barbara’s relative Canon Hatton, who while everyone has plain fare, sits in his room and eats only the best food. Yet the others think he has nothing.

In 1679, Oliver Stanton, one of Anthony Flowerdew’s old students, breaks with his father and returns to Old Vine hoping to get Flowerdew’s help in finding work. There he finds Flowerdew as an old man struggling to support the school by himself with Ethelreda Hatton now doing all the work and the Cannon still hulking by his fire. Chris Kentwoode has died, and the number of students has dropped off. Oliver takes a job as a teacher there and soon begins to feel sorry for Ethelreda, who is overworked and mistreated by her husband.

Some readers may find this format keeps them from being involved in the characters, but I felt some interest in some of them. Although it would have spoiled some surprises, I would have liked to see a chart tracing the characters’ relationships, at least the ones from the last book, as sometimes it was difficult to follow how they connected to the original characters.

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Review 2770: #RIPXXI! Written in Blood

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Here’s another book for RIPXXI! It’s hard to tell whether I would have found this fourth entry in Graham’s Barnaby series even more effective than I did, being so familiar with the TV version that I knew practically everything that was going to happen. I could even picture the actors in some of the parts. Still, I enjoyed this one a lot.

The Midsomer Worthy writing club is trying to decide who to invite as a speaker, knowing full well that no one ever accepts. They finally decide on the blockbuster fiction author Max Jennings. But Gerald Hadleigh seems upset by the decision, although he agrees as club secretary to write the invitation.

Everyone is surprised when Jennings actually agrees to come. The club members are strictly amateurs. Senior citizen Rex St. John is writing about the adventures of a hit man but gets hung up on describing his weapons. Intimidating Honoria Lyddiard is writing a history of her distinguished family. Her quashed sister-in-law Amy Liddiard is writing an adventure novel. Brian Clayton sees himself as an intellectual and is writing an avant-garde play. Sue Clayton, his beleaguered wife, is writing a children’s book about a delightful dragon. And Laura Hutton is pretending to write something to be in the club because she’s in love with Gerald. And what is Gerald writing? I don’t think it ever says.

The afternoon of the meeting, Gerald visits Rex and asks him not to leave him alone with Max. The evening seems to go well except that Gerald doesn’t say much. Rex tries to perform his assigned task when everyone has left except himself and Max, but Max pretends to leave with him and once he’s gone through the door, shuts and locks it. Rex waits outside for a while wondering what to do but feels as if someone is watching him and eventually leaves.

The next morning Gerald is found dead upstairs in his bedroom, his head brutally smashed. Oddly, although most things seem to be in place, the police find that several drawers are empty and a suitcase missing.

Although Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby has been told that Gerald is a retired civil servant and widower from Kent, he can find no trace in records of his marriage or of him, for that matter. And he also can’t track down the location of Max Jennings, who reportedly left around midnight.

As usual, Graham takes her time developing her characters, some of whom have fates they richly deserve. In fact, one of the differences of the book from the episode is that she spends some time at the end on some fitting endings, in particular for two loathsome characters.

Graham is wickedly funny as she skewers writing clubs and a high school drama teacher’s pretentions.

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Review 2768: #RIPXXI! The Methods of Lady Walderhurst

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It took me a while to find information on R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril (RIPXXI) for this year, since they are now only active on Instagram and Threads, where I am barely active or not at all, respectively. But here is my first book for this challenge, which runs from September 1 until the end of October.

When I was looking for an adult book by Frances Hodgson Burnett for my Classics Club list, I read that The Methods of Lady Walderhurst was a sequel to The Making of a Marchioness, which I enjoyed very much. When I finally began reading it, though, I became confused because it begins before Emily Fox-Seton’s marriage, and The Making of a Marchioness ends quite some time after it. Furthermore, it had been years since read TMofaM, but the book seemed very familiar.

As it turns out, this book was written as a sequel to the original Marchioness, which apparently ended with the betrothal. Later, the books were combined, and the Persephone copy that I read years ago must have been a combined edition. That explained to me why when I originally read the first book, it felt as if I was reading two—one a romance and one a dramatic suspense novel.

The Methods of Lady Walderhurst begins shortly before the wedding of the naïve, open Emily Seton-Fox, a well-born but poor errand runner for rich women, to Lord Walderhurst, a middle-aged marquis. Almost immediately, the subject of Alec Osborne comes up. Osborne is a distant relative who has considered himself Walderhurst’s heir. He has a disgraceful past, and Walderhurst dislikes him. He has married a Eurasian girl named Hester, and eventually they come to England on a visit from India.

Emily, now installed as Lady Walderhurst, is a friendly, guileless creature, and as she knows they are not well off, she talks her husband into letting them live in a vacant house on the estate. She does not realize how much Alec Osborne hates her.

Then Walderhurst has to travel to India on business, and Emily invites the Osbornes to move into the big house. She finds she is pregnant, and from that point Osborne begins plotting to kill her, working with Hester’s Indian maid. Hester herself is aware of his feelings but feels more ambiguous because of Emily’s kindness, which alternaturely infuriates her and softens her.

Where will it end?

From a romance novel in the first book, this story moves right into sensation novel territory. Although it describes Emily as childish and almost stupid, it really invokes the reader’s sympathy toward her. I enjoyed it just as much the second time. Warning: it does not portray its Asian characters in a positive light, but then again, there’s Alec.

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Review 2767: The Blue Sky of Spring

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I wanted to read something super light, so I picked up this book, the second in Cadell’s Wayne family series and the only one I hadn’t read before. This one takes place a year after The Lark Shall Sing, in which all of the Wayne family returned home after their older sister Lucille decided to put the family home up for sale.

Cliff Hermann, an American playwright, arrives in Greenhurst to deliver a package to an old lady. He has been encouraged by his friend Robert Debrett (Lucille’s Wayne’s husband) to call on the Waynes, but he’s not in the mood. Miss Dryden-Smth, the recipient of the package, is abrupt and seems uninterested, but as he leaves, he thinks she looks ill.

Nicholas Wayne at 21 has taken on the position of father figure to his three preteen siblings. He has opened a successful travel agency and owns a third of the family home. He is in love with Estelle Dryden, whom he has known all his life, but although she cares about him, she’s not sure of her feelings. He finds her upset. Her aunt, Miss Dryden-Smith, has died, and at the last minute, she attempted to change her will, leaving everything to her son instead of Estelle. It’s not that Estelle wants the money, but no one knows who that son could be or that proper Miss Dryden-Smith, apparently a spinster, could have had a son no one knows about. All anyone knows is that a man delivered a package just before she died, a man in a big black car who was wearing a sling on his arm.

On an expedition to the races with Estelle and her brothers, 12-year-old Julia Wayne spots Cliff Hermann wearing a sling. She is certain he must be the man who delivered the package. Unfortunately, he is on the way to make a bet, and she stops him from getting there in time, so he is angry and displays a nasty temper. But when he sets his eye on Estelle, he changes his tune and soon has come for a visit.

For her part, Julia has a schoolgirl crush on Estelle, who is teaching literature at Julia’s school. She has made Julia interested in a school subject for the first time in her life. Julia confides to Cliff that she is writing a poem about Estelle for a school competition and will present it to her if she wins.

This novel features a romance, a mild mystery, and bitter disappointment for two people. I have to say that I didn’t like Cliff or the way he conducted his pursuit of Estelle.

It was nice to check in with the rest of the family, although the novel doesn’t spend much time with some of them. Of the trilogy, I suspect this novel is going to prove to be my least favorite. It did make me cry, though, which is always a good thing.

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Review 2766: The Pendragon Legend

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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.

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Review 2765: The Leper of Saint Giles

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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.

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Review 2764: Touch and Go

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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.

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Review 2763: The Lark Shall Sing

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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!

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Review 2762: The Clocks

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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.

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