The Christie Curse / Victoria Abbott

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

Since starting to read Agatha Christie's works, I've become interested in books that mention her in some way. I picked this book up used and hoped that it wouldn't be a big disappointment. I'm happy to report that Dame Agatha does not occur as a character, although our main character does try to channel Poirot and Miss Marple. It may be a cozy mystery, but there isn't the usual focus on a romantic plotline or on humdrum household details. However, there are plenty of delicious meals detailed and the benefits of having family members who skirt the law. Not your usual thing in the cozies.

Jordan Bingham has uncles in the “antiques” business, but she's going to university and staying (mostly) on the straight and narrow. She has been hired by a well known book collector to track down a reputed unknown Agatha Christie play, purportedly written during Christie's famous 11 day disappearance. The job comes with room and board, and after Jordan has moved in, she discovers that she had a predecessor who was killed in New York. Maybe murdered. People tangentially involved in Jordan's research start getting hurt and she realizes that there's more going on than meets the eye.

Victoria Abbott is obviously a Christie fan and is also familiar with Rex Stout, Dorothy Sayers, and other writers of crime fiction. This book is very much an homage to the genre. She's a decent writer, only veering off track once briefly (when I guess she figured that she had to summarize things for the reader, which was completely unnecessary). Like Christie, she encourages the reader to think they're onto something, then pulls that rug out from under them. Peeking ahead, I see that there are four more books in the series, with book two concentrating on one of my favourites, Dorothy Sayers. Needless to say, I'll be tracking it down.

I read this to match the Murder and Mayhem by the Book square on my bingo card (which I achieved by doing some hocus pocus with a Wild Card to replace Creepy Carnivals).

The Shadow Queen / Anne Bishop

 

3 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

Bishop tries so hard to write dark fantasy, but I always end up amused by the theatricality of these novels. They are entertaining, but not really all that dark, in my opinion. At any rate, we start with Theran Grayhaven, last heir of his house in a land with very few women of the Blood and no Queens worthy of the title. He goes to Daemon Sadi, counting on a promise to his grandfather for a favour. But Theran is an asshat who thinks that he knows everything, while actually being extremely ignorant. He manages to reveal his asshole nature to everyone he encounters.

Jaenelle happens to know a Queen who is without a court and who would be a good ruler. Lady Cassidy is down to earth, kind, and caring, but she is not conventionally beautiful. Our asshat, Theran, thinks that only exceptionally beautiful women can be good rulers. He does his very best to sabotage the very arrangement that he negotiated. But he hasn't anticipated that his cousin, Gray, will be drawn to Cassidy. Gray is a damaged man, tortured as a young man by one of the sadistic queens who was eliminated during Jaenelle's cleansing. Gray starts towards healing through gardening with Cassidy and their bond develops naturally.

Meanwhile, Theran is being a gigantic pain in the ass. He doesn't want Cassidy to go anywhere or invite any visitors. He blocks all her decisions and generally thwarts everyone's plans. Then he has the gaul to criticise Cassidy for not doing exactly what he wants. And he is shocked when his cousin says, “If she leaves, I go with her.” Thankfully, there are sensible men among the court who are helpful and protective, as they are supposed to be.

Do you know guys like this? Because I do. They judge women by our physical appearance and won't listen to our opinions. Nothing we do is right in their sight and they will go out of their way to try to ruin anything we like. They firmly believe that their views are the only way to look at things. They are very tiresome, but only a problem if you work with them or are related to them and will see them at family gatherings. Otherwise, walking away is pretty much your only choice.

Cassidy comes close to choosing the “walk away" option, but Theran makes one correct decision for once in his miserable life. He receives far more reward than he truly deserves. The next book will continue the tale and reveal whether Cassidy is able to rule without opposition.

I read this to match the Dark, Darker, Grimdark square on my bingo card. It is also Book number 506 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project.

Starter Villain / John Scalzi

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

If you like John Scalzi’s writing, you will like this latest novel. I had a juvenile book lined up as my Evil Genius book for Bingo and was absolutely thrilled when my library came through with Starter Villain so promptly. I switched faster than a speeding bullet! Scalzi has a great time taking a person who is down on their luck and plunking them into an incredible situation in which they can find some success. He did the same thing in the The Kaiju Preservation Society, which I also enjoyed inordinately.

Every possible Super Villain cliché is used with great gusto. Plus, if you have ever lived with a cat and realized that you are not the boss, you will identify with the sentient, language using, computer saavy cats. There's a reason that every villain has a cat! Charlie adjusts to the cats much more quickly than to the other aspects of the villain lifestyle.

Fun and fast, I can see myself rereading it at some future point. I like Scalzi's generally optimistic outlook, that regular people are generally kind and want to be fair with those around them. Even if they've inherited an evil empire.

I read this to match the Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses square on my bingo card.

Ashes of London / Andrew Taylor

 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

London during and after the Great Fire of 1666. Dangerous, dirty, destroyed. James Marwood watches the fire when he should be headed to work at Whitehall. He rescues a small person who he initially assumes to be a boy, but turns out to be a girl in disguise. She seizes his cloak, bites his hand to get him to let go, and flees into the crowd.

Catherine Lovett is the daughter of a Regicide, one of the men who supported Oliver Cromwell. It is she who bit James Marwood. She is living with an uncle and aunt in London while her father is in exile, but it becomes obvious that this arrangement is reaching its end. She is forced to rely on the network of her father's former associates, various nebulous alliances.

Marwood’s life is not entirely his own. His father, another Regicide, has been released from prison, but has dementia with a tendency to both wander and babble. The older man requires care which his son cannot provide. James is indebted to his employer(s) and is set the task of solving a set of murders all done in the same way. His path and that of Cat Lovett continue to cross, intriguing him and worrying her.

It took 62 pages for the first body to be found. I was starting to wonder if this was a book for me. (Have I mentioned how short my attention span had become since Covid started?) But at that point, the plot picks up speed and complexity, keeping me reading steadily. Not a book that I will ever likely reread, but I'm not sorry that I read it.

I read this to match the Darkest London square on my bingo card.

Vanishing Edge / Claire Kells

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

I liked the sound of this book, but went into it cautiously, having been burned in the past (by A Solitude of Wolverines). But this novel grabbed me and refused to let go! Felicity Harland is a tough cookie. She has survived an accident in the Australian outback, a broken back, and a change in career. She really wants to be good at her new investigative job, but finds it quite a bit different from her time with the FBI. The physicality of the job paired with the situation with her back both leave her with serious doubts about whether this will be a success.

Despite this, she doesn't pull any stupid stunts. Yes, she's stubborn and doesn't give herself much leeway, but eventually she sees sense and rests when necessary. Plus she is a dogged investigator, unwilling to give up easily on a potential murder. Her best decision is to team up with the new park ranger, Ferdinand Huxley, better known as Hux. He is a former Navy SEAL, with skills up the wazoo. Plus he's funny and her dog likes him. The seal of canine approval.

The author uses her own life experiences to give this novel a realistic feel. She is an outdoorswoman and a practicing physician, so she gets the details correct. I personally could live with the solution to the crime (once it was determined that a crime had been committed) even though it did disappoint me somewhat.

I really liked this book. I had a hard time putting it down, in fact. If you like it, I would also recommend Track of the Cat (featuring a female park ranger), A Murder of Crows (about a female ecologist), or Find Me (starring a former FBI profiler in a desert environment). I am glad to see two more books following this one--I'll be reading them.

I read this to match the In the Dark, Dark Woods square on my bingo card as it takes place in Sequoia National Park.

Competence / Gail Carriger

 

Halloween Bingo 2023

3.5 stars

Gail Carriger never fails to amuse me. This third book of the Custard Protocol series was just a little less engaging for me than the previous two, possibly because it focuses on Primrose Tunstell, rather than Rue Akeldama, as the first two books did. I feel that the shift was a wise decision once Rue and Quesnel LeFoux were successfully paired off. It is Prim's turn, but she is resisting the obvious with all her might. When even her obtuse twin brother Percy can see that Primrose and the lion shifter Tasherit are meant to be together, it remains to be seen if Prim can let herself love another woman.

As usual, there are plenty of adventures to distract the reader from these relationship questions. Can Rue's Italian cousin be trusted? Can a philosophy book club help him find his way? Will Percy lose every hat that he possesses? Can the Spotted Custard dirigible successfully cross the Atlantic without detailed charts? Can Rue and her crew find and rescue the vampires of the Andes?

I have peeked ahead, to see that the final book in the series will feature Percy Tunstell, our navigator, academic, and socially awkward twin to Primrose. He could benefit from someone taking him in hand, so I can see myself reading onwards.

I read this to match the Punk'd square on my bingo card as it is very steampunk in nature.

The Golden Spoon / Jessa Maxwell

 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

3.5 stars

This novel was a chance to double dip, reading the book club selection for September and having it match a Bingo square too. It was chosen for book club as an example of a first novel published by this author. I enjoyed it!

At first, I wondered if I'd be able to keep track of all the characters. There is a lot of head-hopping, with each chapter from a different person's point of view. My worries were unfounded, I quickly sorted everyone out. Maxwell managed to give each one a distinctive voice and an interesting backstory. All of these people have secret reasons to be involved in this baking competition. As we follow the contest, Maxwell doles out the information and clues.

The whole baking scenario definitely made this a cozy mystery. However, as part of a baking competition these details make complete sense and didn't rub me the wrong way, as all of the banal description in many cozies. The setting in a big, old manor house really worked for me too. I thought it was a great idea to have the show's producer confiscate all of the contestants' mobile phones, too, keeping them focused on the doings in the house and on the set.

A very good initial offering and I would certainly be willing to read this author's next novel.

I read this to match the Cozy Mystery square on my bingo card.

Sparkling Cyanide / Agatha Christie

 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

You know, I think I prefer Colonel Race to Hercule Poirot. He is confident but not liable to brag, which is one of Poirot's most annoying habits. And since he has no sidekick, he readily adopts a local fellow to be his assistant and sounding board.

I enjoyed the multiple points of view in this novel. Christie has used the much hated murder victim plotline before, but had she used this format before? I quickly realized that everyone at the table had good reasons to wish Rosemary ill, if not dead. Even her sister could resent Rosemary's money. But just like the leger de main that resulted in George's death, Christie does some fancy hand-waving to distract from her murderer. As she does so well.

Not as good as some, better than others. Christie really had a taste for spies, didn't she?

I have Vintage Horror, but used my Tell Tale Heart wild card to convert it to Vintage Mystery on my bingo card.

Traveling with the Dead / Barbara Hambly

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

I really appreciate Barbara Hambly's approach to vampire characters. So many authors treat them just as regular people with certain advantages and restrictions, but Hambly's vamps are much creepier. They truly have left their humanity behind. During the course of the novel, we learn that these vampires don't just need blood to stay at full power, they actually are fuelled by the death of their victim. This makes coexistence much more difficult.

James Asher may be an old hand at the spy game, but his wife, Lydia, is not. In fact, James had quit the Great Game, but feelings of guilt pull him back in at this point. It's difficult to tell the people in charge about vampires, after all. They tend to think that your cheese has slipped off your cracker. Plus, the vamps are all tetchy about a living human knowing about their existence. But Lydia knows of them too and when James hares off across Europe, cabling her about his destination, and she realizes that he is headed toward a probable double agent, she does a brave thing. She figures out where Don Simon Ysidro makes his home and waits there for him to arise for the night. If James was reluctant to work with this vampire, Ysidro is also an unwilling partner to Lydia. In fact, when they part, she is sure that she is on her own when she boards a train for Vienna. So it is a bit of a surprise when one of Ysido's human servants shows up to act as her traveling companion. When dusk arrives, Ysidro himself shows up.

Hambly gives Ysidro characteristics unlike the vampiric qualities she has set up in her fiction. When Lydia is at his home/lair, she witnesses him feeding his cats. He maintains an agreement to not kill anyone while traveling with her. He seems to put up with a lot of physical contact with his servant, Margaret, although Lydia knows that he dislikes being touched. A number of times, she notices genuine amusement in his eyes as they discuss their situation.

There is a fair amount of action, interspersed with travel time and time spent researching to discover the whereabouts of vampires in Istanbul, their eventual destination. The threats to James, Lydia, and even to Ysidro all feel very authentic, but I knew there are more books in the series, giving me the luxury of knowing that everyone would survive to have further adventures.

I read this book to match The Carpathians on my bingo card.

Death Comes to Marlow / Robert Thorogood

 

3.75 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

Not quite as enjoyable as the first book in this series, but still quite acceptable. Sir Peter Bailey is getting married for a second time and Judith receives a last minute invitation to the pre-wedding celebration. She doesn't really know the man and, of course, is suspicious. Sure enough, after a blistering row with his son Sir Peter is crushed by an enormous heavy bookcase in his study. Judith, Suzie and Becks are among the group of guests who break into the locked study to discover the body. Surely it must be a horrible accident, right? He was alone in a locked room when he died.

Well, if you read Agatha Christie, you know that it's entirely possible to pull off a crime like this! I was reminded of Hercule Poirot's Christmas and was rapidly putting the pieces together, although I hadn't pieced together all the details. But Judith's little Poirot type summary at the end nailed down the facts.

So, not so charming as Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (which I think is the inspiration for this series), but definitely reminiscent of Christie, which is not a bad thing!

I read this book to match Locked Room Mystery on my bingo card.

The London Seance Society / Sarah Penner

 

3.25 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

I don't know what to think about this novel. I waited on a long list at the library and was glad it arrived in time for Bingo. But I didn't find it dreadfully inspiring, rather predictable. By the 80% mark, I was also beginning to doubt that I would be able to use it as a ghost book. The London Séance Society was proving to consist of a bunch of men who are scam artists and their ceremonies were unlikely to produce real spirits, unless you count brandy or vermouth.

In the first chapters, I liked the main character, Lenna, quite a bit. She seemed intelligent and had her head screwed on straight. I could understand how the grief over her sister Evie's death would send her to the medium that Evie had been studying with. But there comes a point in the action where she lays hands on the crucial evidence and instead of picking it up and running, she chooses to go through it in the perpetrator's office. TSTL. Nevertheless, Lenna regains some of my regard and a spirit or two show up to justify my Bingo square choice. Crisis averted.

So, my advice to you? Your mileage may vary. The villains are sufficiently bad, but not evil geniuses. They are just entitled men taking advantage of widowed women and other grieving people. Asking for extra money here, sexual favours there, they take full advantage of their Society's prestige. How little things have changed.

If you have a yen to read nonfiction about Victorian spiritualism, may I recommend Mary Roach's book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. There is an entertaining section about séances and a trip to an archive to view some of the trappings of a Victorian ceremony. And as Roach says at the end, the debunkers are probably right, but they’re no fun to visit the graveyard with.

I read this book to match Ghosts and Hauntings on my bingo card.

Three Can Keep a Secret / M.E. Hilliard

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

This series is perfect for library workers—it involves our strongest suit, research. I wondered, when I read the first book, why it differed so dramatically from other cozy mysteries. No descriptions of cooking, housework, or personal grooming dominating the pages. It finally dawned on me that it's filled with the boring details of library work. Having worked in a library for my entire career, this was practically invisible to me. Having said that, Greer is a most unusual librarian. She doesn't spend the majority of her work hours in meetings! And the Raven Hill library is also unusually large and well staffed for a small town library. (The library in the small town where I grew up couldn't afford an actual librarian with the Masters degree and had only a small staff of underpaid part timers, my mother among them).

Nevertheless, I really enjoy these mysteries and I'm happy to see that the ending strongly implies that there will be a book four eventually. I like Greer as a main character, I appreciate the focus on her research skills and her knowledge of detective fiction. She gets to channel Poirot in this one. I also am glad to have found a cozy mystery series with only an extremely understated romantic plot line. Greer's potential interest doesn't appear in this book at all, although the flashlights he gifted her are prominent. Gotta love a guy who gives practical presents!

Sounds like Greer will return to the bright lights of the big city in the next volume. I will anticipate it happily.

I read this book to match Genre: Mystery on my bingo card.

Weyward / Emilia Hart

 

4 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

I love the Weyward/wayward word play, because the three women whose stories are related all choose to go their own way, not doing what men or society deem they ought. Despite being independent, they find themselves caught up in the wake of abusive men. I know that kind, I've watched sisters and cousins marry and divorce them. It seems that abusive men have radar for women with few defences. When there is abuse in your family, it feels familiar and its easy to be fooled into deceiving yourself. You find yourself making excuses for him, until the day when it suddenly dawns on you that you are permitting something that you shouldn't be. Then you get the hell out.

If there are no controlling men in your family, congratulations. You may not appreciate this book the way I do. (My grandfather got engaged to my grandmother, then went to a far off job until the wedding day. After which he revealed himself to be a hard, controlling man. He knew he couldn't maintain the nice-guy act until the wedding). So these story lines felt very real to me, and I sometimes was reluctant to read on, fearful of what would happen.

But I am pleased to report that I really liked the ending (for all three women).

I read this book to match Genre: Supernatural on my bingo card, as the Weyward women all seem to have witchy powers. And feast your eyes on that gorgeous cover!

Track of the Cat / Nevada Barr

 

3.3 out of 5 stars

Halloween Bingo 2023

A pretty good little mystery to kick off my Halloween Bingo reading for this year. I've been meaning to try this series for quite a while now and I'm happy to report that I like it thus far. (It was recommended by one of my birding pals who has questionable taste, so that's a relief!)

Anna Pigeon is one of those women who I kind of wish I was like—a competent outdoorswoman. Someone capable of grueling hikes and taking care of herself. But I'm just as happy that I don't have her drinking problem or the extremely antisocial tendencies. I hate to admit how happy I am to live in a city and have regular social calendar!

I was reminded of a book that I didn't like very much, A Solitude of Wolverines. That book featured a female wildlife researcher in Montana and ended in melodramatic silliness. I am happy to report that although Anna does some brainless things and very nearly dies, she retains much more believability than Alex Carter, the wolverine researcher. I will be happy to read book two of the Anna Pigeon series at some future point.

I read this book to match The Barrens on my bingo card, as Anna spends a lot of time out in the desert of Guadalupe Mountain National Park.

Death Comes as the End / Agatha Christie

 

3.25 out of 5 stars

What an odd book in Agatha Christie's canon! I kind of admire how she employs the archeological knowledge that she gained during her second marriage. I wonder what inspired her to write a murder mystery set in Ancient Egypt? I suppose the glamour of that society drew her.

I like that Christie gave her Egyptian characters goals and motives that are completely recognizable to modern people. Renisenb, the dutiful daughter of the house, focuses the narrative. She is incredibly naïve, at least in the beginning. But her grandmother, Esa, is determined to keep her granddaughter alive and to teach her how to THINK. Renisenb is getting there on her own, but Esa hurries her along. Esa is an Ancient Egyptian Miss Marple, being old enough to know what people are capable of doing.

Culture may change, but human motivation stays pretty consistent. Christie recognizes this and uses it to distract the reader. Each time I fastened on a likely suspect, she killed them off! I am so easily led.

Far from my favourite Christie, but I'm glad to have read it.