A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 403 Original date of publication: 1937 My copy: 2006 (Harper Mystery) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Barnes and Noble, May 2010 I have slowly been winding my way through the iconic Lord Peter Wimsey series, based on publication date, and I’ve wound down with Busman’s Honeymoon . Lord Peter and Harriet Vane are newlyweds who decide to spend their honeymoon in the countryside at Talboys, a farmhouse in Herfordshire. But their idyll is shattered when the former owner of their house is found dead in the cellar… The title is a takeoff on the phrase busman’s holiday; the idea being that, while of vacation or holiday, someone does something that’s similar to their line of work. Of course, Lord Peter and Harriet’s wedding is supposed to be a break from crime, but they nonetheless find themselves solving one all the same. In all, I thought this was a strong ending to the series—Sayers wraps up a few loose ends in the Lord Peter/Harriet/Bunter stor...

Pages: 501 Original date of publication: 1935 My edition: 1995 (Harper Collins) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, April 2010 I always prefer the Lord Peter Winsey mysteries when Harriet Vane is in them. The more she appears, the better I like her for savvy, intuition, self-sufficiency, and wit—as well as the attraction she and Lord Peter have towards each other, which is based on intellectualism rather than anything else. You can see perfectly why they’re drawn to each other—and why Harriet keeps pulling away. In Gaudy Night, Harriet attends her reunion—also known as the Gaudy—at the fictional Oxford college of Shrewsbury. While there, she receives a threatening note, the first of several that members of the college receive over the next few months. Harriet is asked to join the staff of the college, ostensibly to work on a study of Sheridan Le Fanu, but really to investigate the mystery of the notes—which eventually lead to vandalism, amon...

Pages: 302 Original date of publication: 1965 My edition: 2009 (Virago) Why I decided to read: All Virago/All August How I acquired my copy: Watersone’s, Piccadilly, London, September 2011 The Flight of the Falcon is one of Daphne du Maurier’s later suspense novels. Published just after The Glass-Blowers (1963) and before The House on the Strand (1969), The Flight of the Falcon is set in Rome and the town of Ruffano, Italy. Armino Fabbio is a tour guide, or courier, shepherding tourists from England and America (the Beef and Barbarians) throughout the Italian countryside. One evening, he gives 10,000 lire to an old beggar woman in the street, who he later finds out was a) murdered and b) was his old childhood nurse. Deciding to investigate, Armino goes to his childhood hometown, Ruffano, where the town’s university has blossomed. Taking a job as a library assistant, Armino uncovers a secret relating to his own past. All of this is linked to an event, or mystery, th...

Pages: 188 Original date of publication: 1995 My edition: 2001 (Penguin) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Waterstone’s, Piccadilly, London, September 2011 In the late 14th century, a young, errant cleric comes across a troupe of traveling players. One of their party has recently died, and the cleric, Nicholas Barber, steps in to play parts. Their travels take them to a town where a woman of the town has recently murdered a young boy, apparently. Although players in the middle ages only focused on religious subjects, this troupe decides to stage a theatrical version of the murder as a Morality Play. But as they perform it, they discover that the truth is far from what they thought it was. I thought it was a great idea—and I love everything related to the middle ages, so I thought I would love this book. But I didn’t really. It’s a short book, but it drags in places due to the author’s laborious attempt to sound like a medieval person. There’s a heavy-h...

Pages: 440 Original date of publication: 1932 My edition: 1995 (HarperCollins) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, April 2010 I’ve been reading my way, slowly but surely, through the Lord Peter Wimsey series for about 4 years now—not necessarily in series order, since I started with Murder Must Advertise. Have His Carcase opens with the mystery writer Harriet Vane, who, on a walking tour, discovers a dead body lying on a rock. The murdered man is a Russian emigrant and a dancing teacher at a local hotel who may or may not have been associated with Bolsheviks. Naturally, Lord Peter is interested in the case, and he makes haste to join Harriet Vane to solve the mystery (with periodic marriage proposals). However, once the tide comes in, the body is swept out to see, leaving the two detectives with a mystery but no physical evidence. Dorothy Sayers was the queen of sharp, smart mystery stories. On the surface they’re straightforward police p...

Pages: 388 Original date of publication: 1962 My edition: 2003 (HarperTorch) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Local bookshop, June 2009 Awhile ago, the author Deanna Raybourn had a blog post which basically sums up the essence of Mary Stewart’s novels, much better than I could ever describe them. The Moonspinners sticks pretty much to Mary Stewart’s tried-and-true formula—but she always manages to hold her readers in suspense, no matter what. Here, Nicola Ferris is a young secretary with the British Embassy who decides to take a holiday and meet her cousin on Crete. She inadvertently arrives a day early and runs into two hikers, one of which is Mark Langley, who has witnessed a murder and is in hiding. Added on top of all this is that Mark’s brother Colin has disappeared… Mary Stewart’s novels are quick, beachy reads, and highly addictive—I finished this one in several sittings over the course of a day. She writes about place very well, almost to...

Pages: 194 Original date of publication: 1940 My edition: 2006 (NYRB Classics) Why I decided to read: It’s on the list of NYRB Classics How I acquired my copy: The Strand, NYC, July 2011 What is The Strangers in the House? A mystery? Noir? I had a hard time figuring this dark tale out. In it, a alcoholic, reclusive is woken out of his rut when a murder is committed in his house. It turns out that Loursat’s daughter, Nicole, has been keeping company with a whole host of shady characters, including the dead man. Interestingly enough, Loursat, once a successful attorney, decides to defend the accused man at trial. Loursat isn’t particularly what you might expect from the hero of a story. Drunk, overweight, dirty, and ugly, it takes a singular event to wake him out of the stupor he’s lived in since his wife abandoned him eighteen years ago. Shutting himself up in his rooms in one part of the house, he’s virtually a stranger to his daughter and their servants. The characters are the drivin...

Pages: 231 Original date of publication: 1947 My edition: 2003 (Persephone) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: the Persephone shop, September 2011 Lucia Holley is a middle-aged housewife, living somewhere in America during WWII. Her husband is away, and she is raising her two teenaged children on the homefront. After her daughter begins dating an unattractive, married man who then turns up dead, Lucia inadvertently becomes involved in the crime when she attempts to cover it up in order to protect the person she thinks killed the boyfriend. Holding wrote this novel at around the same time that Patricia Highsmith was writing T he Talented Mr. Ripl ey series; and while The Blank Wall isn’t quite as suspenseful as Highsmith’s books, it belongs to the same school of psychological suspense novels. The plot moves quickly, and Holding doesn’t waste her words in order to convey the tension of the plot. The reader really feels Lucia’s inner struggle as she tries to cover up the crime...

Pages: 387 Original date of publication: 2011 My edition: 2011 (Mira) Why I decided to read: I’m a fan of the Lady Julia Grey series How acquired my copy: Amazon pre-order, June 2011 I’m always nervous when I embark on reading another book in the Lady Julia Grey series. Will this one be as good as the last? Or, for that matter, the first? I think the appeal of the series lies in the interaction between Julia and Brisbane; I’m always worried that the spark between them won’t be there anymore. Julia and Brisbane are back in London from their honeymoon, trying to juggle married life and Brisbane’s career as a secret enquiry agent. One of his new clients is Julia’s older brother Belmont, an MP and pillar of the community who’s the last person you’d expect to ask Brisbane for help. Julia, of course, insinuates herself into the case, and her and Brisbane’s enquiries lead them to the Ghost Club and a medium called Madame Seraphine. Murder, arson, blackmail, and grave robbing—these are all pre...

Pages: 276 Original date of publication: 1976 My edition: 1976 (William Morrow and Company) Why I decided to read: Mary Stewart is one of my favorite authors! How I acquired my copy: from Susanna Kearsley, December 2009 Mary Stewart is one of my favorite authors, and Touch Not the Cat reminds me of why I love her novels so much: she infuses her novels with romance, suspense, and a hint of the supernatural. Her novels usually take place in an exotic location, so I was a bit surprised to learn that Touch Not the Cat is set in England. It’s a lot more mature than some of her other books. Bryony Ashley grew up at Ashley Court, ancestral home of a family that dates back to Norman times. When her father is killed in a hit-and-run accident, she returns to England from her temporary home in Madeira. She has a “relationship” with a spirit who speaks to her in a kind of psychic way. I rolled my eyes at the opening line of the novel (“My lover came to me on the last night of April, with a messa...

Pages: 354 Original date of publication: 1931 My edition: 2006 (Harper Torch) Why I decided to read: I’m trying to read all of the Lord Peter mysteries in order of publication date I enjoy Dorothy Sayers’s mysteries, I really do; but with the last couple that I’ve read, I just haven’t liked them quite as much as, say, M urder Must Advertise or The Nine Tailors (her two best, in my opinion, so reading them first was kind of like eating desert before dimmer). The Five Red Herrings takes place in an artists’ community of Scotland, where Lord Peter is conveniently at hand to investigate the murder of an unpopular (of course) artist. All of the suspects in the case are artists; the key to this mystery is discovering who, since the culprit leads the detectives on the case on a wild goose chase half the time. I have to admit that I kind of got bored about halfway through; the mystery deals endlessly with timetables. Usually, I’m all about the small details that make up a really good murder...

Pages: 464 Original date of publication: 2000 My edition: 2000 (Soho Crime) Why I decided to read: I needed an X author for the A to Z Challenge How I acquired my copy: Amazon, January 2011 On May 11, 1990, the body of a well-known national model worker is found in an out-of-the-way canal in Shanghai. Chief Inspector Chen Cao (a poet and translator in addition to being a detective) is called in to investigate. At first it looks as though this isn’t a politically-motivated crime, but the case soon leads Chen and his partner, Yu, to suspect a well-known photographer and son of one of the old high-powered cadres. Death of a Red Heroine is a little bit outside the realm of mysteries I normally read. I’m unfamiliar with the setting (1990 China), so the fact that the author intersperses bits of 20 th century Chinese history into the story was a great help to me. I liked how the author managed to interweave history with fiction to create believable characters with believ...

Pages: 327 Original date of publication: My edition: 2011 (St. Martin’s) Why I decided to read: Heard about this through Amazon.com How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, December 2010 Originally published as The Secret Lion , The Tudor Secret is the first in what will be a series featuring Brendan Prescott, an orphan foundling who was raised in the household of the Dudley family. In 1553, King Edward is on his deathbed, and William Cecil gives a secret mission Brendan. Soon he finds himself working as a double agent, as he attempts to discover the secret of his own birth. There ‘s a lot to like in this novel, mainly in the historical details that the author weaves into the story. He knows Tudor history like the back of his hand, and it definitely shows in this book. Because it was his first novel, however, there are some rough patches. There were a couple of plot holes that I had trouble navigating around—primarily, why would a secretive man such as Cecil entrust a ...

Pages: 352 Original date of publication: 1957 My edition: 2004 (Harper Torch) Why I decided to read: I’m trying to read all of Mary Stewart’s books, and this one seemed to be the perfect vacation read How I acquired my copy: Chester County Books and Music, June 2009 I’m really trying to read Mary Stewart’s books at the slowest rate possible, because I’ve only got two or three left of hers to read for the first time. Like her other books, Thunder on the Right is romantic suspense, but it’s a departure for Mary Stewart in that the book is written in the third person. I’m used to her books being written in the first person, so this kind of threw me off at first as I was reading—not sure I like the change! The plot is what I’ve come to expect from a May Stewart book—plucky heroine goes to the Pyrenees to see her cousin, who has written to say that she is joining a convent. Hoping to dissuade her, Jennifer discovers that her cousin has apparently died—or has she? With a ...

Pages: 469 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2011 (Hyperion) Why I decided to read: it was offered through Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, November 2010 Last year, I read one of Andrew Taylor’s other books: Bleeding Heart Square , set in Earl’s Court in the 1930s, right in the heart of the British fascist movement. The Anatomy of Ghosts is completely different. Set in 1786, it features a bookseller who is commissioned by a wealthy lady to catalogue a library, while at the same time find his benefactress’s son, a student at Cambridge who has been committed to an insane asylum. It’s an interesting premise, but it’s not an original one. The author turns to all the old clichés: a femme fatale (guess where that story line is going?), a mysterious library, a murder, a secret mission, etc. Taylor doesn’t really go out of the box for this book as he did with Bleeding heart Square, and Holdsworth, his main character, is about as bland as they com...

Pages: 261 Original date of publication: 1930 My edition: 2006 (Harper) Why I decided to read: I felt like reading more Dorothy Sayers How I acquired my copy: Barnes and Noble, May 2010 Strong Poison is the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery that features Harriet Vane. When Harriet Vane, a mystery writer, goes on trial for the murder of her lover, who is also an author, Lord Peter sets out to exonerate her—falling in love with her as he does so. Harriet is less developed as a character, of course, than Lord Peter is—but you can see a lot of promise with her and her relationship with Lord Peter. She’s headstrong, feisty and unconventional, and her conversations with Wimsey are some of the better parts of the book. You can tell that she’s quite a mental match for him; and the comparisons between Harriet and Sayers are very clear. Previously, we’ve seen Wimsey as stoic and a bit arrogant, and it’s nice to see some romance come into his life, and see him brought down a no...

Pages: 388 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Mira) Why I decided to read: Heard about this book through the author’s website and blog How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, October 2010 Dark Road to Darjeeling is the fourth book in the Lady Julia Grey series. This time, Lady Julia and Nicholas, nine months married, are headed to India, where Julia’s sister Portia’s friend, Jane, has recently been made a widow. Jane suspects that her husband has been murdered, and so Lady Julia goes to investigate. Lots of people have reason to want Freddie Cavendish dead—and the child that Jane carries. I love that Deanna Raybourn took Julia out of England for this one. India is always a stellar place to set a novel, and I loved the descriptions of Darjeeling and Calcutta. I was nervous about seeing what would happen now that Julia and Brisbane are married; but the tension between them is still alive and kicking (and Deanna Raybourn depicts their relationship much ...

Pages: 254 Original date of publication: 1964 My edition: 1964 (William Morrow) Why I decided to read: it was 90 degrees outside at the time and I decided it was time to read another book by a favorite author How I acquired my copy: from Susanna Kearsley, December 2009 Sometimes, whether or not I decide to read a book depends on the weather. Mary Stewart’s books are best read on either very hot or very cold days; and since it was 90 degrees out one weekend a couple of weeks ago, I decided that this one would be perfect. And it was. This Rough Magic takes its title from The Tempest , a play from which this novel takes off. Lucy Waring is a struggling actress who comes to visit her sister on Corfu. One of her neighbors is a renowned actor who’s taken a bit of a sabbatical and his son, a musician with whom Lucy comes to blows at first. This Rough Magic is vintage Mary Stewart, with a murder or two, a mystery, romance, suspense, and lots of magic thrown in. Lucy ...

Pages: Original date of publication: 1928 My edition: 1998 (Harper Torch) Why I decided to read: I felt like reading more Dorothy Sayers How I acquired my copy: Barnes and Noble, April 2010 I’ve been meaning to read more Dorothy Sayers for a while; but when Susan hill mentioned it in Howards End is on the Landing , I knew that this had to be the next to read. In the years just after WWI, an old military man (a veteran of the Crimea) dies in his club. Although it would seem that he died of natural causes, Lord Peter Wimsey determines that he was murdered; and he sets out to prove not only the time of death but the manner in which the General died. At stake is money, and who will inherit it. Of her early Lord Peter mysteries, this one is undoubtedly Sayers’s best. She seems to have gotten better and better with each book she wrote, and she really perfected her art with this book. She deals with not only the petty stuff, but the larger things that were going on in...

Pages: 463 Original date of publication: 2006 My edition: 2007 (Allison and Busby) Why I decided to read: I’m a fan of the author’s novels as Susanna Kearsley How I acquired my copy: from the author, December 2009 Des cription fr om Amazon: When an old man strikes up a conversation with her on the steps of St. Paul's and makes a mystifying mention of murder and an oddly familiar comment about her grandmother, Kate Murray is intrigued. But she never gets to hear the rest of Andrew Deacon's tale. Shocked by his unexpected death, she wonders whom this strange, old man is, and what the odd reference to her grandmother could mean. Interest piqued by the story never told, Kate becomes drawn into an investigation, uncovering secrets about the grandmother she thought she knew and a man she never did. Soon she is caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of events that takes her back into her grandmother's mysterious wartime past and across the Atlantic as she tries to ...