Penn Dutch Inn mysteries (with recipes) by Tamar Myers

1. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993)
2. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Crime (1995)
3. No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk (1996)
4. Just Plain Pickled to Death (1997)
5. Between a Wok and a Hard Place (1998)
6. Eat, Drink, and Be Wary (1998)
7. Play It Again, Spam (1999)
8. The Hand That Rocks the Ladle (1999)
9. The Crepes of Wrath (2001)
10. Gruel and Unusual Punishment (2002)
11. Custard's Last Stand (2003)
12. Thou Shalt Not Grill (2004)
13. Assault and Pepper (2005)
14. Grape Expectations (2006)
15. Hell Hath No Curry (2007)
16. As the World Churns (2008)
17. Batter Off Dead (2009)
18. Butter Safe Than Sorry (2010)


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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

MIss Marple Mysteries by Agatha Christie

1. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
2. The Body in the Library (1942)
3. The Moving Finger (1942)
4. A Murder Is Announced (1950)
5. They Do It with Mirrors (1952) -- aka Murder with Mirrors
6. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)
7. 4.50 from Paddington (1957) --- aka What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw
8. The Mirror Crack'd: from Side to Side (1961)
9. A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
10. At Bertram's Hotel (1965)
11. Nemesis (1971)
12. Sleeping Murder (1976)


Short stories
The Thirteen Problems (1932) - aka The Tuesday Club Murders


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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Tommy and Tuppence mysteries by Agatha Christie

1. The Secret Adversary (1922)
2. Partners in Crime (1929)
3. N or M? (1941)
4. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968)
5. Postern of Fate (1973)

Partners in Crime (short stories in which Christie provides homages to famous detectives of the day.

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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Hercule Poirot novels by Agatha Christie

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
2. The Murder on the Links (1923)
3. Poirot Investigates (1924)
4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
5. The Big Four (1927)
6. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
7. Peril at End House (1932)
8. Lord Edgware Dies (1933)-- aka Thirteen at Dinner
9. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
10. Three Act Tragedy (1934) -- aka Murder in Three Acts
11. Death in the Clouds (1935) --- aka Death in the Air
12. The ABC Murders (1936)
13. Cards on the Table (1936)
14. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
15. Death on the Nile (1937)
16. Dumb Witness (1937) ---aka Poirot Loses a Client
17. Appointment with Death (1938)
18. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) -- aka A Holiday for Murder / Murder for Christmas
19. Sad Cypress (1940)
20. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) -- aka An Overdose of Death
21. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
22. Five Little Pigs (1942) -- aka Murder in Retrospect
23. The Hollow (1946) -- aka Murder after Hours
24. The Labours of Hercules (1947)
25. Taken at the Flood (1948) -- aka There Is a Tide
26. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) -- aka Blood Will Tell
27. After the Funeral (1953) -- aka Funerals Are Fatal
28. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
29. Dead Man's Folly (1956)
30. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
31. The Clocks (1963)
32. Third Girl (1966)
33. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
34. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
35. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case (1975)


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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

The Cat Who Mysteries by Liian Jackson Braun

1. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966)
2. The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (1967)
3. The Cat Who Turned on and Off (1968)
4. The Cat Who Saw Red (1986)
5. The Cat Who Played Brahms (1987)
6. The Cat Who Played Post Office (1987)
7. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (1988)
8. The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (1988)
9. The Cat Who Went Underground (1989)
10. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts (1990)
11. The Cat Who Lived High (1990)
12. The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal (1991)
13. The Cat Who Moved A Mountain (1992)
14. The Cat Who Wasn't There (1992)
15. The Cat Who Went Into the Closet (1993)
16. The Cat Who Came to Breakfast (1994)
17. The Cat Who Blew the Whistle (1995)
18. The Cat Who Said Cheese (1996)
19. The Cat Who Tailed A Thief (1997)
20. The Cat Who Sang for the Birds (1998)
21. The Cat Who Saw Stars (1999)
22. The Cat Who Robbed A Bank (2000)
23. The Cat Who Smelled A Rat (2001)
24. The Cat Who Went Up The Creek (2002)
25. The Cat Who Brought Down The House (2003)
26. The Cat Who Talked Turkey (2004)
27. The Cat Who Went Bananas (2004)
28. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell (2006)
29. The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (2007)
The Cat Who Had 14 Tales (1988)
The Cat Who Put Four in a Box (1999)

Short Stories, etc.
Qwilleran's Short and Tall Tales (2002)
The Private Life of the Cat Who...: Tales of Koko and Yum Yum from the Journals of James MacKintosh Qwilleran (2003)
Two Cats, Three Tales (omnibus) (2006)


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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Chris Norgren mysteries by Aaron Elkins

1. A Deceptive Clarity (1987)
In Berlin to help mount an exhibit of priceless paintings, once thought lost, museum curator and Renaissance art expert Chris Norgren must turn detective when his boss is murdered soon after voicing concern over the paintings' authenticity.

2. A Glancing Light (1991)
Set in the gossipy, rumor-ridden art world, this thoroughly enjoyable mystery begins with the discovery of a fake Van Eyck and a real Rubens in the Seattle warehouse of an importer of schlock art sold en masse to hotels. Identifying the works almost instantly is ironic, self-deprecating narrator Chris Norgren, first met in Deceptive Clarity. Chris, a curator at the Seattle Art Museum, is swept up in the dangerous hunt for thieves, perhaps mafiosi, who stole the Rubens and other works in three almost simultaneous hauls--worth $100 million--in Bologna 22 months earlier.

3. Old Scores (1993)
Seattle Art Museum curator Chris Norgren falls prey to the lure of a newly discovered Rembrandt in this third in a spirited series (after A Glancing Light ). He also topples head-first out of a second-story window, but the nasty fall is happily blunted by a conveniently located car. Acquiring art isn't usually perilous, but anything is possible when the work is in the care of French dealer Rene Vachey, notorious for passing off thefts as publicity stunts. Vachey has offered the Rembrandt--if it really is a Rembrandt--as a gift to Chris's museum, with a veritable spider's web of strings attached. He will, however, permit only a cursory viewing and explicitly forbids scientific authentication. Chris, adrift in France, far from the arms of his girl, feels pretty sure that the painting is the genuine article. But after Vachey is murdered, his claim to have found the Rembrandt in a junk shop suddenly seems dubious; moreover, his employees have excellent motives to dislike him, several art experts have been burned by his outrageous exploits, and he even has that old crime fiction favorite, a deadbeat son recently dunned out of his dad's dough in a suspect will.

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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Gideon Oliver "The Skeleton Detective" by Aaron Elkins

1. Fellowship of Fear (1982)
2. The Dark Place (1983)
3. Murder in the Queen's Armes (1985)
4. Old Bones (1987)
5. Curses! (1989)
6. Icy Clutches (1990)
7. Make No Bones (1991)
8. Dead Men's Hearts (1994)
9. Twenty Blue Devils (1997)
10. Skeleton Dance (2000)
11. Good Blood (2004)
12. Where There's a Will (2005)
13. Unnatural Selection (2006)
14. Little Tiny Teeth (2007)
15. Uneasy Relations (2008)
16. Skull Duggery (2009)



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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Sarah Kelling Mysteries by Charlotte MacLeod

1. The Family Vault (1979)
2. The Withdrawing Room (1980)
3. The Palace Guard (1981)
4. The Bilbao Looking Glass (1983)
5. The Convivial Codfish (1984)
6. The Plain Old Man (1985)
7. The Recycled Citizen (1987)
8. The Silver Ghost (1987)
9. The Gladstone Bag (1989)
10. The Resurrection Man (1992)
11. The Odd Job (1995)
12. The Balloon Man (1998)


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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Peter Shandy Mysteries by Charlotte MacLeod

1. Rest You Merry (1978)
2. The Luck Runs Out (1979)
3. Wrack and Rune (1981)
4. Something the Cat Dragged In (1983)
5. The Curse of the Giant Hogweed (1985)
6. The Corpse in Oozak's Pond (1986)
7. Vane Pursuit (1989)
8. An Owl Too Many 1991)
9. Something in the Water (1994)
10. Exit the Milkman (1996)

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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Miss Danforth Mysteries, by Marian J. A. Jackson

Official website: http://www.marianjackson.net/

"1900 had just begun when Miss Abigail Patience Danforth turned 18 and made her debut...as the world's first female consulting detective...and romance invaded the infant science of detection."

The Punjat Ruby (1990) guest-starring Conan Doyle
The Arabian Pearl (1990) guest-starring Marshall Bill Tighlman
The Cat's Eye (1991) guest-starring Jack London
Diamond Head (1992)
The Sunken Treasure (1994) guest-starring Harry Houdini

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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Paul Temple and the Van Dyke Affair, episode 6

I'm working on a website for the Paul Temple radio programs starring Peter Coke (pronounced Cook) and Marjorie Westbury. (There used to be one, but it was on the Geocities free side, and when they closed that a couple of years, the website disappeared.

Rather than put cast lists on notebook paper where I will probably lose them, I'll put them in this blog.

Never heard of Paul Temple? Check him out on Wikipedia. Truth to tell, I don't really care for the mysteries - they are all formulaic, but I like the two leads and it is amusing to listen to all the incredibly convoluted twists and turns in the plots.

1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 1 of 8 - The Sitter-in
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 2 of 8 - The Marlow Incident
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 3 of 8 - Introducing Mr. Droste
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 4 of 8 - Boulevard Seminaire
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 5 of 8 - Roger Shelly Makes a Suggestion
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 6 of 8 - Suspect Number One
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 7 of 8 - Steve Entertains
1959 - Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair - 8 of 8 - Presenting Mr. Vandyke

Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair, pt 6 - the first time some of the cast have been identified by name instead of as "part of the BBC drama repertory company."

Britishisms - a babysitter is a "sitter-in"

Paul Temple - Peter Coke
Steve - Marjorie Westbury
Charlie - James Beattie
Sir Graham Forbes - Lester Mudditt [according to BBC Audio Crime CD release. But according to BBC Radio 7, it was Roger Williams)
Inspector Eden - Frederick Treves
Terry Palmer - Peter Wilde
Mary Desmond - June Tobin
Queenie Edwards - Armine Sandford
Madame Flaubert - Catherine Salkeld
Bert Walters - Haydn Jones
Roger Shelly - Richard Hurndall
Bill McCall - John Scott
Sergeant Digby - David Spenser
Philip Droste - Simon Lack
Vanessa Droste - Grizelda Hervey
Charles Marett - John Bryning
Newsvendor (Louis Franz) - Rolf Lefebyre
Luke - Jon Farrell
Telephone Operator - Betty Baskcomb
Receptionist - Beatrice Ormonde
Waiter - David March
Dr Foy - John Graham
Marian Faber - Betty Hardy
other parts played by members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company

Produced by Martyn C. Webster



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This blog is updated every TUESDAY and THURSDAY

Ministry is Murder series

The Ministry is Murder series is written by Emilie Richards. Aggie-Sloan Wilcox is the wife of a minister. She has an eccentric mother who has had many husbands. She has two half-sisters, each from a different father, each one also eccentric, and two girl children ust moving into their teens, with all the problems that implies.

Blessed is the Busybody (2005)
When the naked body of a murdered woman turns up on Aggie's front porch--and suspicion falls on Aggie's husband--she doesn't have a prayer of clearing his name unless she can uncover the truth in a town not known for confessing its sins.

Let There Be Suspects (topic: Christmas) (2006)
With the chalk outline gone from their front porch, Aggie Sloan-Wilcox and her minister husband think they can resume their lives. But when Ginger, Aggie's despised former foster sister, comes for Christmas, and turns up dead as a drumstick, Aggie's sister is suspected. Now it's up to Aggie to find the real murderer-who's decided there's a loophole in thou shalt not kill.

Beware False Profits (2007)
Joe Wagner, president of Emerald Springs's food bank, disappears, and Aggie discovers his secret life-as a female impersonator. Meanwhile, the murder of the mayor's wife at the annual food bank fundraiser puts Joe on top of the suspect list. If Aggie doesn't get to the bottom of things fast, she'll be leading a choir singing the blues.

A Lie for a Lie (2009)
When the ex-wife of a local celebrity is charged with his murder, minister’s wife Aggie Sloan-Wilcox seeks divine inspiration to help clear her name.

A Truth for a Truth (2010)
After a former minister dies suddenly upon his return to Emerald Springs, his memorial service is cut just as short. Aggie Sloan-Wilcox, wide of the current minister, knows why. The poor old guy was murdered. But who in this bucolic village could be capable of such a crime?

Aaron Elkins and his creation, Gideon Oliver

I downloaded and read Skull Duggery last night, and while I enjoyed it, it must be admitted that he was just regurgitating the plot from another book. Or perhaps I should say... plot device.

He's done this at least twice now that I can think of - encompassing four books.

Spoilers
In Skull Duggery, the plot device is that a relative has gone off to seek his own life, and then comes back to take over a valuable piece of property. The relative who returns is an imposter, but for 30 years lives the life of Riley. He uses the same plot device in Old Bones.

Then there is the case of the archaeologist digging up a certain site, who is tricked by a fake bone being planted. The first time this happened was in Murder in the Queene's Armes. It takes place in England. Skeleton Dance has almost the exact same plot.

This is not to say that the books aren't fun. But they are formulaic.

Skull Duggery, by Aaron Elkins

Just downloaded this for my Kindle today, and am about to start reading it.

But I thought... skullduggery - just where does that name come from?

Here's what Dictionary.com has to say:
1. dishonorable proceedings; mean dishonesty or trickery: bribery, graft, and other such skulduggery.
2. an instance of dishonest or deceitful behavior; trick.
Also, skullduggery, sculduggery, scullduggery.

Origin:
1705–15, Americanism ; var. of sculduddery, orig. Scots: fornication, obscenity < ?

So it has nothing to do with digging up and faking skulls. ; )

I'm on travel

I'd checked into a hotel early today, in order to get caught up on all my blog work including the Friends of Mr Cairo. But the room was the room from hell, except we didn't find out about it until after we'd brought in all our luggage, and my mom was too tired to want to move - even though I'd do all the heavy lifting.

So anyway, I can finally get on the internet now - 4 hours later - and I just don't have the energy to do any blog wrk today.

Tomorrow, I will. Promise. (Assuming I get a hotel room with working internet first crack out of the box!)

Ellery Queen on DVD September 28, 2010

In only 2 days, the 22 episodes of Ellery Queen will be available via Amazon.com, for $35.99

I loved this show...not so much because of Ellery Queen (who, in this series, seemed to be a Columbo clone) but because of the character of Simon Brimmer, played by John Hillerman (when he was svelte, unlike his appearance in the later series, Magnum PI).

In the first several episodes, radio detective Simon Brimmer would always provide a solution to the crime...which Ellery Queen would then disprove. But apparently, the authors were having such a problem coming up with two different solutions to the same murder that they decided to phase out Brimmer to make it easier for them.

Topical Murder: A Botanist At Bay (John Sherwood)

A Botanist at Bay, by John Sherwood. 1985

TOPICS:
Location - New Zealand.
Detective - amateur female.
Topic: botany


Celia Grant, botanist and amateur sleuth, is on her way to New Zealand, where her daughter is about to have a baby.

She also plans, at the request of her friend the Duchess Hermione, to look for Uncle Bertie -- Lord Albert Melton -- whose strange disappearance is made even more puzzling by his photos of some very rare plants and a very naked redhead.

Upon her arrival, Celia learns that the redhead is Rosie Murphy, a radical member of New Zealand's Parliament, and a leader of an environmentalist battle against a dam that would endanger certain rare wild plants. Trouble is that Celia and her new friend, fellow botanist Tom MacRae, are certain those plants -- the very ones found in Uncle Bertie's photos -- aren't wild, aren't endangered, and were obviously recently transplanted at the proposed dam site!

Suddenly Rosie Murphy is murdured, and Celia Grant is the prime suspect! Can Celia combine her horticultural and investigative skills to learn the truth about the plants, find Uncle Bertie, and clear her name?

Celia Grant
1. Green Trigger Fingers (1984)
2. A Botanist at Bay (1985)
3. The Mantrap Garden (1986)
4. Flowers of Evil (1987)
5. Menacing Groves (1988)
6. A Bouquet of Thorns (1989)
7. The Sunflower Plot (1990)
8. The Hanging Garden (1992)
9. Creeping Jenny (1993)
10. Bones Gather No Moss (1994)
11. Shady Borders (1996)

Topical Murder: Trial Run, by Dick Francis

Trial Run, by Dick Francis (1978)

TOPICS:
Amateur male detective.
Location: Moscow, Russia
Time: The Present (1978)
Themes: Horse Riding

How can you say 'no' to a Prince? You can't. Randall Drew found out quite quickly, though the last place he wanted to go was Moscow, even if it was on a missin for the Royal Family. But the Prince's brother-in-law had his heart set on riding in the Olympics, and it seemed some jealous Russian had her heart set on killing him if he did.

So leaving behind his well-bred horses and high-born girlfriend, Randall went to Moscow, little expecting that the sabotage and murder he'd find would pale in comparison to the unspeakable terror that followed...

Dick Francis
TITLE YEAR MAIN CHARACTER OCCUPATION
Dead Cert 1962 Alan York Amateur jockey, Company representative
Nerve 1964 Rob Finn Professional jockey
For Kicks 1965 Daniel Roke Australian horse breeder,
undercover investigator
Odds Against 1965 Sid Halley Investigator, former champion jockey
Flying Finish 1966 Henry Grey Amateur jockey, semi-professional pilot, in-
flight horse-transport supervisor
Blood Sport 1967 Gene Hawkins Civil service screener
Forfeit 1968 James Tyrone Racing journalist
Enquiry 1969 Kelly Hughes Professional jockey
Bonecrack 1971 Neil Griffon Business consultant
Rat Race 1972 Matt Shore Air taxi pilot
Smokescreen 1972 Edward Lincoln Actor
Slay Ride 1973 David Cleveland Jockey Club Director of Security
Knockdown 1974 Jonah Dereham Bloodstock agent
High Stakes 1975 Steven Scott Inventor, racehorse owner
In the Frame 1976 Charles Todd Artist
Risk 1977 Roland Britten Accountant, amateur jockey
Trial Run 1978 Randall Drew Gentleman farmer, former jockey
Whip Hand 1979 Sid Halley Investigator, former champion jockey
Reflex 1980 Philip Nore Professional jockey, amateur photographer
Twice Shy 1981 Jonathan Derry Teacher, Olympic marksman
William Derry Owner’s representative
Banker 1982 Tim Ekaterin Merchant banker
The Danger 1983 Andrew Douglas Kidnapping investigator
Proof 1984 Tony Beach Wine merchant
Break In 1985 Kit Fielding Champion jockey
Bolt 1987 Kit Fielding Champion jockey
Hot Money 1987 Ian Pembroke Amateur jockey
The Edge 1988 Tor Kelsey Jockey Club undercover investigator
Straight 1989 Derek Franklin Professional jockey
Longshot 1990 John Kendall Writer
Comeback 1991 Peter Darwin Diplomat
Driving Force 1992 Freddy Croft Former jockey, owner of horse tranport business
Decider 1993 Lee Morris Architect/builder
Wild Horses 1994 Thomas Lyon Film director
Come to Grief 1995 Sid Halley Investigator, former champion jockey.
To the Hilt 1996 Alexander Kinloch Artist
10-lb. Penalty 1997 Benedict Juliard Student, amateur jockey, insurance
investigator
Second Wind 1999 Perry Stuart TV meteorologist
Shattered 2000 Gerard Logan Glass blower and sculptor
Under Orders 2006 Sid Halley Investigator, former champion jockey
Dead Heat 2007 Max Moreton Chef and restaurateur (written with son Felix)
Silks 2008 Geoffrey Mason Barrister (written with son Felix)
Even Money 2009 Ned Talbot Bookmaker (written with son Felix)

August 3 in Mystery and Crime Lore

1920 - P.D. James (pseudonym of Phyllis White) is born in Oxford. Her detective is Inspector Dagliesh. Her books include: Cover Her Face (1962) and Devices and Desires (1989). Coordelia GRay was introduced in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman in 1972, "the first modern British private detective."

August 2 in Mystery and Crime Lore

1905 - Actress Myrna Loy is born in Helena, Montana. She played the Daughter of Fu Manchu opposite Boris Karloff, and was Nora Charles opposite William Powell's Nick Charles in the Thin Man series of moviers.

1918 - Joseph Hayes is born in Indianapolis. His best seller The Desperate Hours will be turned into both a play and a movie. For the movie starring Humphry Bogart, Hayes will be awared an edgar for best screenplay.

Source: The Mystery BOok of Days. Mysterious Press, 1990

August 1 in Mystery and Crime Lore

1925 - Alan Geoffrey Yates, who writes hundreds of potboilers as Carter Brown, is born in London. He wrote such books as Shamus, Your Slip is Showing (1955), Blonde, Beautiful and Blam! (1956) and Who Killed Dr. Sex (1964)

1966 - Student Charles Whitman climbs a tower at the University of Texas at Austin, armed with several weapons. At 11:48am he opens fire. He is killed an hour and a half later by 3 policemen. In between times, he kills 21 people and wounds 28 others. (Wikipedia says killed 14 people and wounded 32 others). [Whitman suffered from a brain tumor that may have contributed to his psychotic outburst on this day.]


Source: The Mystery Book of Days, Mysterious Press, 1990

The Thin Man (1934)

View the trailer at YouTube or at the IMDB.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

If you haven't seen The Maltese Falcon, make that your first sojourn into film noir.




If you go to the Internet Movie Datase (www.imdb.com) you will generally be able to see at least trailers from most movies, if not clips.

Visit there now to see a 1941 movie trailer in all its glory.

Who is this man?
He makes crime a career --
and ladies a hobby
He's as fast on the draw--
as he is in the drawing room.

Humphry Bogart as the most ruthless lover you've ever met
Mary Astor as the most exciting woman he's ever met

It's Dashiell Hammett's greatest novel
The Maltese Falcon

Such amazing adventures!
Such strange drama!
It's a masterpiece of mystery!

Humphrey Bogart topping his smashing success in High Sierra
Mary Astor greater than in The Great Lie

The Maltese Falcon
Another great story from the author of The Thin Man

The Song of the Thin Man (1947)

The Song of the Thin Man was the last in the Thin Man series of films. While all the series is charming, it must be said that only the first two are excellent. The others are good mostly because of the chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles.

Legend in Green Velvet, by Elizabeth Peters

To Mother
best friend, severest critic, fellow
traveller, and all-around inspiration



Note:The Friends of Mr. Cairo shares dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.
For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Case of the Gilded Fly, by Edmund Crispin

For
Muriel and John
donum memoriae causa




Note:
The Friends of Mr. Cairo shares dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.
For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The James Joyce Murder, by Amanda Cross

To the first reader of this--and other things





Note:
The Friends of Mr. Cairo shares dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.
For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Rat Race, by Dick Francis

Contains an introduction, but no dedication.

The introduction explains how Dick Francis and his wife formed an air-taxi company, which was successful for seven years before they sold it to a competitor.


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The House Without A Key, by Earl Derr Biggers

To my mother and father


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Poetic Justice, by Amanda Cross

Note
It will, of course, be obvious to every reader
that the quotations at the heads of the chapters,
and most of the poetry scatterd reverently
throughout this work,
are from the writings of W.H. Auden.
The author is grateful to Random House, Inc.,
for its permission to quote from the
copyrighted woriks of Mr. Auden


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Sweet Death, Kind Death, by Amanda Cross

For David Hadas
To mark a quarter-century of conversations
about death and life


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Spence at Marlby Manor, by Michael Allen

This book has no dedication


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Beginning With a Bash, by Pheobe Atwood Taylor

This book has no dedication.


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Murder in the Queen's Armes, by Aaron J. Elkins

This book has no dedication.


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Glimpses of the Moon, by Edmund Crispin

For Ann


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton

For my father,
Chip Grafton,
who set me on this path


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Between a Wok and a Hard Place, by Tamar Myers

For Nancy Yost of Lowenstein Associatse, Inc.
I couldn't ask for a better agent.

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Dead March, by Ann McMillan

In memory of
Charles Hunter McMillan
a gentle man

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts

Dedicated to Earl Bettinger,
the husband who...

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Saddled With Trouble, by Michele Scott

To Mon and Dad
who nurtured my love of horses


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Hindenburg Murders, by Max Allan Collins

To Joe Pittman--
for helping keep
the Collins balloon aloft

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Clairvoyant Countess, by Dorothy Gilman

For Bob and Barb Spence especially, and for psychics
Ida Harrington and Vivian Meyer



Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.

For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Players Come Again, by Amanda Cross

To Grace K. Baruch
1936-1988

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Nevermore, by Harold Schechter

In loving remembrance of
Celia Wasserman Schechter

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

The Ironclad Alibi, by Michael Kilian

For Roma Downey
and a lovely Richmond day


Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters

To my son Peter

Note:The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.For book reviews, please visit our blog:Topical Murder and Dated Death

A Nun in the Closet, by Dorothy Gilman

For
Larry Ashmead
and
Betty Bartelme



Note:
The focus of The Friends of Mr. Cairo has changed. This blog will now share dedications (if any) made in various mystery novels.

For book reviews, please visit our blog:
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

A is for Susan Wittig Albert, pt 1

Part 1: The list of books of the author
Part 2: A review of one of the authors books

Tomorrow, I'll be reviewing The Tale of Hill Top Farm, the first in the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter (Beatrix Potter owns a farm in 1905 England. The parish registry has gone missing...Beatrix won't rest until its found.

The books of Susan Wittig Albert (mysteries, not her kids books):

The China Bayles Mysteries
Thyme of Death (1992)
Witches' Bane {1993)
Hangman's Root (1994)
Rosemary Remembered (1995)
Rueful Death (1996)
Love Lies Bleeding (1997)
Chile Death (1998)
Lavender Lies (1999)
Mistletoe Man (2000)
Bloodroot (2001)
Indigo Dying (2002)
A Dilly of a Death (2004)
Dead Man's Bones (2005)
Bleeding Hearts (2006)
An Unthymely Death (Short story collection) (2003)
The China Bayles Book of Days (October 2006)
Spanish Dagger (2007)
Nightshade (2008)
Wormwood (2009)
Holly Blues (2010)
Mourning Gloria (2011)


The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Hill Top Farm (2004)
The Tale of Holly How (2005)
The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood (July 2006)
The Tale of Hawthorn House (Sept 2007)
"The Tale of Briar Bank" (Sept 2008)
"The Tale of Applebeck Orchard"(Sept 2009)


The Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries
These are co-written with her husband, Bill Albert under the name Robin Paige.
Death at Bishop's Keep (1994)
Death at Gallows Green (1995)
Death at Daisy's Folly (1997)
Death at Devil's Bridge (1998)
Death at Rottingdean (1999)
Death at Whitechapel (2000)
Death at Epsom Downs (2001)
Death at Dartmoor (2002)
Death at Glamis Castle (2003)
Death in Hyde Park (2004)
Death at Blenheim Palace (2005)
Death on the Lizard (2006)

The Last of the Black Widowers

Isaac Asimov, best known as the author of science fiction novels and short stories, and non-fiction science essays and books, was a fan of Agatha Christie and other mystery writers, and had long wanted to branch out into the mystery genre. His first forays in that genre carried on with his scientific expertise - he wrote a novel A Whiff of Death, in which a professor at a New York university must discover who has murdered his graduate student by substituting cyanide for chemicals on which he'd been working, and of course his two novels Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957) were science fiction mysteries with a human detective and his positronic robot sidekick Daneel Oliwaw.

He then created Wendell Urth, who also dealt with scientific mysteries, with his debut in "The Singing Bells."

But he had always wanted to get into Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and finally accomplished that feat with "The Acquisitive Chuckle," in 1972.

The formula for the Black Widowers stories are the same in all cases, six members of the club, and their waiter Henry, meet once a month at the Milano restaurant for dinner and conversation. A guest is brought, who is "grilled" - asked to justify his existence, and invariably he (it is always a he, for this is a stag organization, except on one occasion when a woman is permitted to present her story, but must remain seated just outside the doorway to the dining room.)

Murder is only involved once in these stories, they are all ...not trivial... but involve such things as stolen bonds, cheating on a test, mislaying a manuscript, and so on. Indeed, as the stories go on, the problems become more and more trivial and far-fetched, but they continue to be popular because readers like the men who compirse the Black Widowers, in particular their invaluable waiter Henry, who is the one who really solves the puzzles.

Asimov was writing these stories during the 70s and 80s, when women were first beginning to challenge those men-only laws for organizations and clubs, and the fact that the Black Widowers is a stag organization and the women's movement is referenced on more than one occasion (for all that, I think Asimov really did think of women only as eye candy...for the most part).

The Return of the Black Widowers, the final book of the series, was published posthumously, and edited by Charles Ardai (with a touching and humorous forward by Harlan Ellison, who appears as Darius Just in one of the stories in the volume, The Woman in The Bar.) Eleven of the stories are reprints of stories from the other collections, six are uncollected stories (since there need to be twelve to fill out an anthology, and Asimov died prior to completing the whole set), and two stories about the Black Widowers by other writers, William Brittain's "The Men Who Read Isaac Asimov" - in which a group of men try to solve a contest using Henry's methods in the Black Widowers stories that they like, the other, by Charles Ardai, a Black Widowers tale.

The weakest story in the collection, and the one I dislike most of all, is "Yes, But Why." It deviates from the formula in that there is no guest - Henry wants to be the guest. He has a problem, and it is by hearing solutions suggested by the other members that he is able to clear away the dross to see the truth. On this occasion, he is having lady problems. As I read this story I just wanted to slap the lady in question, and Henry, and Asimov!

"I have told you," said Henry, "that she is a reserved and independant woman; that we have had a cool and entirely intellectual companionship. It may be, perhaps," and here he grew a trifle pinker, "that she found herself dissatisfied with that companionship. She knew that I pride myself on bein able to see into a complex situation, and it may be she plotted one in which I would fail."

"Yes, but why?" said Rubin.

"So that she would have a reasonable excuse to be distressed and weak for a considerable length of time. So that she would become dependent on me and cling to me. So that I would be concerned about her, and become more involved with her."

Oh, how I wanted to administer slaps all around!

Having said that, if you can track these books down in your local library, I would give them a try, and I suggest reading them in chronological order - in particular, read the first in the series, Tales of the Black Widowers, and its first, "The Acquisitive Chuckle," my favorite story of the lot.

Geoffrey Avalon (based on L. Sprague de Camp)
Emmanuel Rubin (based on Lester del Rey)
James Drake (based on Dr. John D. Clark)
Thomas Trumbull (based on Gilbert Cant)
Mario Gonzalo (based on Lin Carter)
Roger Halsted (based on Don Bensen)
The deceased founder of the club, Ralph Ottur, on whom the plot of the story "To the Barest" turned, was based on the real-life founder of the Trap Door Spiders, Fletcher Pratt. The stage magician The Amazing Larri, from the story "The Cross of Lorraine", was based on James Randi. The arrogant science writer Mortimer Stellar, from the story "When No Man Pursueth", was based on Asimov himself

Tales of the Black Widowers (1974)
More Tales of the Black Widowers (1976)
Casebook of the Black Widowers (1980)
Banquets of the Black Widowers (1984)
Puzzles of the Black Widowers (1990)
The Return of the Black Widowers (2003)

Mysterious Blogs: Authors

EQMM has a column called Blog Bytes... let's see what was reviewed in the Jan 2010 issue:

Kent's Rants:
http://williamkentkrueger.com/blog
Believe it or not, I used to know this author! We both used to work for the same company in Minnesota. It was decades ago, though...I think he was a computer guru at the company...but I attended his very first book signing/reading for his very first novel - jealous as all get out because he'd finished a novel and had it published...and I hadn't finished anythimg! Now, a decade later....he's had several more books published and I... well... I have my blogs and webzines. ; )

Kent is the author of the Cork O'Connell mysteries. (Cork O'Connor is part Irish, part Ojibwe. When Krueger decided to set the series in northern Minnesota, he realised that a large percentage of the population of the county he had selected as a model for the fictional Tamarack County of his books was of mixed heritage)
Iron Lake - 1998
Boundary Waters - 1999
Purgatory Ridge -2001
The Devil’s Bed - 2003
Blood Hollow - 2004
Mercy Falls - 2005
Copper River - 2006
Thunder Bay - 2007
Red Knife - 2008
Heaven's Keep - 2009

John Harvey has a blog called Mellotone70Up Blog, located at: http://mellotone70up.wordpress.com.

John Harvey (born 21 December 1938 in London) is a British author of crime fiction most famous for his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels, based in the City of Nottingham. Harvey has also published over 90 books under various names, and has worked on scripts for TV and radio.

He also ran Slow Dancer Press from 1977 to 1999 publishing poetry. The first Resnick novel, Lonely Hearts, was published in 1989, and was named by The Times as one of the 100 Greatest Crime Novels of the Century. Harvey brought the series to an end in 1998 with Last Rites, though Resnick has since made peripheral appearances in Harvey's new Frank Elder series.

The protagonist Elder is a retired detective who now lives, as Harvey briefly did, in Cornwall. The first novel in this series, Flesh and Blood, won Harvey the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2004, an accolade many crime fiction critics thought long overdue. In 2007 he was awarded the Diamond Dagger for a Lifetime's Contribution to the genre.

On 14th July 2009 he received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Nottingham in recognition of his literary eminence and his associations with both the University and Nottingham (particularly in the Charlie Resnick novels). He is also a big Notts County fan.

I confess I've never read a Charlie Resnick novel. BBC7 will occasionally play book recordings...read by the actor who played Inspector Japp in the Hercule Poirot mystseries that starred David Suchet, Philip Jackson, and the snippets I'd heard didn't raise my interest. However, your mileage may vary.

Smokescreen, by Dick Francis

Edward Lincoln is an actor, and a successful one. But he's the rugged kind, like Clint Eastwood (so he can handle the trials and tribulations that author Dick Francis is about to throw at him!). Before becoming an actor, he had ridden horses for a living, so when a family friend, who is dying, asks him to travel to Australia to discover why her horses aren't running well, he can hardly refuse.
But Lincoln, who likes to maintain a low profile, finds more than he bargained for in Australia, from paperazzi yearning to get some dirt on him (whether or not they have to invent it themselves doesn't matter), to the people behind the poorly-performing race horses, who don't want to see their scheme interfered with.
Francis handles the characters in this book with sureness...we get an insight into the actor's life that is fascinating (in particular the feud with the director/auteru), and of course there are the inevitable racing scenes that are also fun. And then of course there are the trials and tribulations that Francis heroes are known to be subjected to.




Recommended.

Nerve, by Dick Francis

Dick Francis has died today, at the age of 89. He was a former steeplechase jockey. After retiring, he started writing about the sport for a newspaper, and then got into writing novels. Some people say that it was actually his wife who wrote the books but regardless, some are good, some are bad (in my opinion) and most are very popular.

The key element of a Dick Francis book is that it will have something to do with horses and horse-racing. His early books featured mostly jockeys and racing, later books dealt with lead characters in other professions, who were only tangentially connected to the horse racing world.

Another element of a Dick Francis novel is that the hero always - always - will be either beaten up or in some way tortured in the last few chapters of the book, to show how tough they are, presumably.

Truth to tell, Nerve isn't one of my favorites, but it is an interesting psychological story. (My favorite Franis is Reflex, the very first one I read, in which the hero is a jockey and also an amateur photographer, the reflex of the title speaking both of a person's reflexes, and also a reflex lens), followed by In the Frameand then Forfeit.

Interestingly, having just checked Wikipedia, it looks like Nerve was Francis' second novel, written in 1964. I was surprised by that - it is very accomplished, for someone's second novel.

Robb Finn is a beginning jockey, just starting out in his career. Things are starting to look up - he's just been offered steady rides by a trainer, James Axminster. He's ecstatic...he's on his way. Then...things start to go wrong. His horses start to give up on him...is he losing his nerve?

This is a novel of psychological suspense...as several jockeys whom Rob knows are also finding their lives in turmoil...losing their jobs, losing their nerve, nad so on... what is going on?

Here are the first few paragraphs of the book:

Art Mathews shot himself, loudly and messily, in the center of the parade ring at Dunstable races.

I was standing only six feet away from him, but he did it so quickly that had it been only six inches I would not have had time to stop him.

He had walked out of the changing room ahead of me, his narrow shoulders hunched inside the khaki jerkin he had put on over his racing colors, and his head down on his chest as if he were deep in thought. I noticed him stumble slightly down the two stepos from the weighing room to the path; and when someone spoke to him on the short walk to the parade ring, he gave absolutely no sign of having heard. But it was just another walk from the weighing room to the parade ring, just another race like a hundred others. There was nothing to suggest that when he had stood talking for two or three minutes with the owner and the trainer of the horse he was due to ride, he would take off his kerkin, produce from under it as he dropped it to the ground a large automatic pistol, place the barrel against his temple and squeeze the trigger.

If you haven't read Dick Francis before - and he's so popular that you probably have, I'd suggest starting chronologically, from Dead Cert (his first novel, 1962), to Straight. He wrote more after that but they are disappointments (either written by a ghost writer or by his son), without the same flair.

Dead Cert 1962
Nerve 1964
For Kicks 1965
Odds Against 1965
Flying Finish 1966
Blood Sport 1967
Forfeit 1968
Enquiry 1969
Rat Race 1970
Bonecrack 1971
Smokescreen 1972
Slayride 1973
Knockdown 1974
High Stakes 1975
In the Frame 1976
Risk 1977
Trial Run 1978
Whip Hand 1979
Reflex 1980
Twice Shy 1981
Banker 1982
The Danger 1983
Proof 1984
Break In 1985
Bolt 1986
Hot Money 1987
The Edge 1988
Straight 1989
Longshot 1990
Comeback 1991
Driving Force 1992
Decider 1993
Wild Horses 1994
Come to Grief 1995
To the Hilt 1996
10 LB. Penalty 1997
Second Wind 1999
Shattered 2000
Under Orders 2006
Dead Heat 2007 with Felix Francis
Silks 2008 ISBN with Felix Francis
Even Money 2009 with Felix Francis

Scooby Doo, What Happened To You?

or...why do movie makers have to destroy their source material?

The first Scooby Doo movie was filmed in 2002. At first I wanted to go see it. I had loved Scooby Doo as a kid, and I liked Rowan Atkinson. Then I learned a bit about the plot... the Mystery Machine gang split up, and two years later reunite to solve a mystery.

Blech. Why why why? It's a trope that movie makers do all the time for movies aimed at teens...have a group that works perfectly fine break up, so there's some quick and easy stuff to move the plot forward instead of coming up with a good mystery plot to begin with . It's like that Thunderbirds abomination, where the one kid doesn't feel loved by his parents...then things arrange themselves so that he's the only one who can save the day. Blech, blech and again blech.

I'm so tired of "rebellious teens" being made the focus of movies. Like Indiana Jones' son (that of course he never knew about...shades of The Genesis Project and Captain Kirk's son - you trying to tell me Captain James T. Kirk, the lothario-prime of the universe, ever had sex with any woman - human or alien, with out wearing a condom? No way, no how.)

Anyway, what really revolts me about this first SCooby Doo movie...which I'm watching on TV - with the sound down, I hasten to add - while I wait for the Olympics to start, is a scene where Shaggy and Scooby are having a belching contest. I can't remember that there were ever any belches in the original Scooby Doo cartoons, but a few years ago - probably in 2002 and now all the rage, there are belches in kids movies. Oh, so funny!

But this scene progressed from belches to farts. Now I suppose boys do think that seeing who can fart the loudest is funny...but that's only because they haven't been taught that its kind of stupid and extremely gross. Let boys do it amongst themselves if they must, if that's what makes them boys, but to subject an entire audience to that crap...or even just a little girl and her parents watching the movie in the privacy of their own home - dis-gusting. Classless.

And we wonder why society today is at the nadir its at.

Having said that... Rowan Atkinson sure does look cute...though not Blackadder II cute. But he isn't given enough to do.

Edited... and it gets work.

It's at the ending now..and Scrappy Doo has turned out to be the villain. Jesus Christ!

But what really revolted me was early than this, when the spirits of Freddy and Daphne somehow get switched, so they are each in each other's bodies. And Daphne as Freddie's reaction - pure lasciviousness. "Oh, great, now I can look at myself naked."

Jeus, what a revolting disaster. You take a kid's show, and you turn it into a lascivious piece of garbage. And this thing was popular enough to spawn a sequel? Very, very sad.

The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne

I've been reading The Red House Mystery . It was published in 1922 by A.A. Milne, one of the very first full-length mystery novels. (Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920.)

Although I'm enjoyed the mystery, truth to tell I'm not sure what age audience it's aimed at. A. A. Milne is most famous as the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, and occasionally in the book the omniscient narrator addresses the reader in a professorial manner (as JRR Tolkien does in The Hobbit, a book for teens, but not in The Lord of the Rings), aimed at adults.

For example:

At about the time when the Major (for whatever reasons) was fluffing his tee-shot at the sixteenth, and Mark and his cousin were at their business at The Red House, an attractive gentleman of the name of Antony Gillingham was handing up his ticket at Woodham Station and asking the way to the village. Having received directions, he left his bag with the station master and walked off leisurely. He is an important person to this story, so that it is as well we should know something about him before letting him loose in it. Let us stop him at the top of the hill on some excuse, and have a good look at him.

The first thing we realize is that he is doing more of the looking than we are. Above a clean-cut, clean shaven face, of the type usually associated with the Navy, he carries a pair of grey eyes which seem to be absorbing every detail of our person.

Mark Ablett is a wealty man who maintains a household in the country, which he allows his cousin to run. He invites people, much less well-off than himself, down to frequent house parties - he is a sponsor of all the arts. On the day when this novel starts, he receives a letter from his ne'er do well younger brother, Robert, who has been living in Australia for decades. He's coming to call.

In due course, Robert does arrive. He goes into the study with Mark, and all is silent for some time. Then there is a shot. Mark's cousin Cayley bangs on the door to the study, while Antony Gillingham, who has come to the house to pay a call on his friend, Mr. Beverly, whom he knows is staying there, sees him from the front door and offers his assistance. When they enter the room, they find the body of Robert on the floor...and Mark nowhere to be found.

Gillingham enlists his friend Beverly as his Watson, and sets out to solve the mystery, with the accommodating help of the policeman on the case.

The Red House Mystery is very much a "tea cosy" mystery, a puzzle (and one that anyone who has read twenty years of Agatha Christie may solve quickly - but remember this book was written very early on in the career of the mystesry novel.)

It's an easy read, it evokes a time long past (as do Christie's early novels), and its fun.

I'm reading it in the Kindle edition (only 99 cents). The formatting is a little off. Sometimes lines in a paragraph are shifted down, an occasional indentation is missing, but these are very, very minor problems.

Dangerous Depths, by Kathy Brandt

As an aspiring scuba diver, I wanted to find a book that dealt with mysteries and scuba diving. One series I found was that featuring police diver Hanna Sampson, who appears in:

1. Swimming with the Dead (2003)
2. Dark Water Dive (2004)
3. Dangerous Depths (2005)
4. Under Pressure (2006)

Dangerous Depths takes place in the British Virgin Islands.

From Wikipedia: The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. Approximately fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island which is approximately 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide. The islands have a total population of about 22,000, of whom approximately 18,000 live on Tortola.

I include this information because it isn't given in the book. A few of Brandt's characters speak with an island accent, but other than that the reader doesn't really get the feel of being in the British Virgin Islands, for all that there's plenty of investigating underwater going on.

Hannah Sampson is a police diver who comes to the British Virgin Islands to escape from her life in Denver:

I'd first come to the islands on a special assignment, investigating the death of the Denver police commissioner's son, a scientist doing research in the BVI. He'd disappeared while out diving only to be found seventy feet under the water, just off the coast of Tortola, trapped inside a wreck, dive tank empty. The commissionwer had been devastated wanted one of his own people in the Denver PD and an experienced diver checking things out. He'd sent me.

After I'd apprehended the killers, John Dunn, the chief of Tortola police, had asked me to stay and offered me a job, and I'd decided to give it a try. He needed a diver and underwater investigator on his team, and I needed to get away.

Hannah lives on a boat called the Sea Bird. At midnight, she is waked by an explosion and runs on deck to see her friend, Elyse Henry's boat, on fire. Hannah dives into the water to save her friend, who later ends up in hospital in critical condition.

Her police captain believes the explosion was an accident - Elyse must have had a faulty stove on board - but Hannah believes it was attempted murder, and she sets out to investigate Elyse's movements in the last few weeks, to see if someone has a motive for her death.

And she finds one, in men who dislike Elyse's environmental work to save the endangered green sea turtle. But does their dislike extend to murder?

Truth to tell, I'm ambivalent about the book. The mystery is excellent, but it is hard to wade through the writing. (No pun intended.)

Many authors write so well that one loses oneself in the book, eventually unaware one is even reading. Others don't do so well - among them Clive Cussler and Kathy Brandt (although Brandt's grasp of the language is better than Cussler's!) But so much detail is given that it takes one right out of the story.

Here are a few paragraphs:

"Yeah. I'll tell you what though - it's a much nicer job in the crystal waters of the tropics. Back in the States I was retrieving bodies from icy lakes and brown polluted water. Mostly, diving blond. I'll take this any day."

We were quiet for the rest of the ride and I found myself thinking about the diving I had done in the States. And I thought about losing Jake. He'd been the team leader. It had been a frigid January morning, and we'd been on assignment, diving for a body in an alpine lake.

We'd bagged the body and taken it to the surface, then returned to examine and collect evidence. We were on our way back to the surface when I turned to make sure Jake was behind me. He wasn't. I went back, frantic, searching for him in the dark, icy water. By the time I got to the surface, I was hypothermic and out of air. The team found his body the next day.

Jake and I had lived together for over a year and had finally decided to make the big commitment. The wedding was to be that weekend. Instead, I'd ended up standing in the cemetery, watching the snow falling on his casket. I hadn't heard what the minister said that day. I made a promise back then never to get that close again. It hurt way too much.

and here's an underwater description:

We descended slowly. Every few feet, I pinched my nose [one can do this with masks that leave the nose free] and blew to equalize the pressure in my ears. Carr was doing the same. Visibility was about twenty feet, with a slight current. The deeper we got, the darker it became/ At fifty feet, I could see the outline of the wreck. The boat was completely intact and lying on its right side at the edge of a precipice that dropped into nothingness. There was no indication from this vantage that there had been a fire.

I stopped and shot photos [Cussler at this point would have told you what camera and filmn she was using! So would Ian Fleming, admittedly.] Then we continued to the bottom. I checked my depth-gauge: seventy-six feet. Both Carr and I spent a second adjusting the air in our buoyancy compensator vests, just enough so that we were hovering above the bottom. Then we headed for the wreck, our lights on. As we moved in, I shot pictures from every angle, making sure to place the boat in context. Then we moved in closer. We would not touch anything on this first dive, just to get an idea of what we were up against. Carr knew that he would stay behind me and follow my lead.

Check this book out from the library, and it's worth a read. I wouldn't buy a copy though.

Captain America 602: Or, "And don't forget your briefcase, Obama!"

I turned on the radio this morning while I was out for a drive, and heard Glenn Beck comment on the new Captain America comic, issue 602.

(Now, although I don't read comics any more, occasionally I'll pick up an issue. For example today I went into my local comic store for Captain America 602 and came out with three issues of The Marvels Project as well, as this looks ike a reimagining of the Timely Comics from the 1940s, with the Sub-mariner and the original Human Torch (an android), and the original Captain America).

Captain America had been in the news a few months ago... the original Steve Rogers had been killed, and a new one had taken his place who was insane...at that time I hadn't been moved to pick up an issue... but this time I was, because according to Glenn Beck the issue was classifying white working-class American survivalists as terrorists.

So I wanted to check it out and see for myself. The issue is called Two Americas.

(A history of Captain America - as presented in this comic book)
1940s - Steve Rogers, the real Captain America
1950s - Rogers in suspended animation, the later insane William Burnside becomes Captain America
1960s - the real Steve Rogers is discovered by the Avengers and thawed out, to become Captain America
2009 - Steve Rogers is killed (but not really) and Bucky, who was his partner during WWII as a teenager (and who died!) takes over the mantle of Captain America
2009 - The insane Captain America, William Burnside, returns and partners with the Watch Dogs, a group that apparently wants to overthrow America's government.

Of course, Boise, Idaho is known for being home to militia and survivalist (although if you ask me how I know this, I couldn't tell you, but I've read about it somewhere) and there are White Supremacist groups out there who are evil (but we never hear of the Black Supremacist grous that are also out there and are just as evil...)

Anyway, to this particular comic book. I've come in at least one issue behind the times, so who these Watch Dogs are isn't exactly clear. They are hardly militia men or border patriots taking it upon themselves to stop illegal aliens, considering they are wearing body armor. They are all white... but then it's Boise.

The false/insane Captain America, looks at a closed strip mall, at businesses out of business, and thinks, What is happening to my America. From this one can infer that he's not upset about immigrants or bloacks, just that everyone is out of work.

Then there's a Tax protest, and these protesters are seen (apparently) as loons to the sane Captain America and his partner, the Falcon. There's a mention of Teabaggers (as opposed to Tea Partyers), and so on. So - nothing about putting the US back to white America, and all about preventing evil taxes from destroying businesses.

The Falcon goes undercover to a business as an IRS agent saying he's doing an audit. He's thrown out of the bar by the sane CA (in disguise, as he wants to infiltrate the group) to the cheers of everyone. So...all the guy wants to do is audit the bar, not close it down, and this has everyone upset.



Interesting stance by the insane Captain America here. Typically, this is how a female character is made to stand, with a hip thrust out, guys usually stand with their weight centered. [Not related to my theme, here. It just is interesting - I dont' think I've ever seen a male character stand like this before. At least, not a super hero or villain character.]



"What the hell has happened to my America?" Note he's saying this while looking at closed-down businesses, not looking at an integrated neighborhood. The thrust of this insane CA is apparently not an integrated America, just the government and its taxes.



Note the character just to the left of the woman is black. But its the two men on the left who seem to be "the kind of Americans hes looking for."



How can they work if they live in tent cities? But apparently, some survivalists have deliberately taken to the woods of Idaho to avoid having to pay taxes.



A tea party. All white folks protesting.

Now, when Glenn Beck mentioned this panel, he seemed to think it was dissing the protesters. But the Falcon's words seem to be pointing out that it's not only the "loony Watch Dog" group that doesn't like the government. (The Watch Dogs being the group that apparently intends to overthrow the government)






The Falcon pretends to be a tax auditor, claiming that this barkeep had been sent several letters (when obviously he hadn't been). He's black, in an all-white bar.


And when he gets thrown out by Bucky (the sane Captain America, who used to be the real Captain America's side kick during WWII, of course.!!!), note he gets in a dig, calling the Falcon Obama.

And final notes, just on why some people buy comic books...



A yellow costume, which certainly shows how well-endowed this guy is.



Apparently each Captain America issue has two stories, one featuring Cap, the other Nomad, a female super hero who wears a practical crime-fighting uniform. Then Ariana - a Spiderman clone - comes along. And what's she wearing? A t-shirt, cut so as to show off her belly button. Do boys actually buy this comic just so they can look at her belly-button? Because jesus would anyone fight crime wearing a t-shirt like that, rather than armor or a bullet -proof and fire-proof consume covering one's entire body???

The Books of Josephine Tey

When I was oh, 13 or 14 (how I wish I'd started keeping a journal when I was that young, as I'd love to be remember the first time I read this or that book, saw this or that play or movie, etc.) I first read Elizabeth Peter's The Murders of Richard III - in which a group of enthusiasts who believe in Richard's innocence of the murder of his nephews in the Tower of London, foregather in an English country house to have a simple meeting, only to have sinister happenigs spoil their fun...but delight the reader, of course.

In that book, Peters mentions Josephine Tey's book The Daughter of Time, and since I had convened a fascination for Richard after reading her book, I next sought out The Daughter of Time, and liked that too. (Truth is the daughter of time.) After that, I read all of Tey's books. Although Wikipedia wasn't available at that time, the much-lamented Armchair Detective was - and it was for sale at my local book store devoted to selling used mysteries - Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore in Minneapolis, MN.

And one of those issues had an article about Elizabeth McIntosh, who used Josephine Tey as one of her two pseudonyms, so I knew the info that Wikipedia presents, if you check that source today:

She was born in Inverness, Scotland on July 25, 1896 and died from cancer on February 13, 1952.

She attended a physical training college in Birmingham, before becoming a teacher. However, her literary career began only when she was forced to give up regular work in order to care for her invalid father.

The most famous of her five mystery novels is The Daughter of Time, in which Grant, laid up in hospital, has friends research reference books and contemporary documents so that he can puzzle out the mystery of whether King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Grant comes to the firm conclusion that King Richard was totally innocent of the death of the Princes.

The Daughter of Time was the last of her books published during her lifetime. A further crime novel, The Singing Sands, was found in her papers and published posthumously. After her death, proceeds from her estate, including royalties from her books, were assigned to the National Trust.

As Gordon Daviot she wrote about a dozen one-act plays and another dozen full-length plays, but only four of them were produced during her lifetime. Richard of Bordeaux was particularly successful, running for fourteen months and making a household name of its young leading man and director, John Gielgud.

Tey is mentioned in the 1982 Stephen King novella, Apt Pupil.

Tey appears as a main character in An Expert In Murder (Faber 2008) by Nicola Upson, a detective story woven around the original production of Richard of Bordeaux. The second novel in the series, Angel with Two Faces, was published in 2009; further novels are planned.

Angel With Two Faces is not yet available in the US, however, I hadn't known about Expert in Murder at all, until I read the wikipedia article in preparation for what will be my entry tomorrow - a Dated Death compendium for A Shilling For Candles.

The film rights for A Shilling For Candles, published in 1936, were purchased by Alfred Hitchcock, and it was turned into Young and Innocent, a fun little film that nevertheless had very little in common with its source material.

I started reading the book last night, and as it was published in 1936, and in England, there are lots of references that now, almost 75 years later, may not be apparently to the casual American reader. Hence, my Dated Death project, in which I annotate these books so that modern readers can more fully enjoy them. Of course, all books, dated or otherwise, are enjoyable, one can understand what's meant in the context of the paragraph, of course, but it does add a certain je ne sais quois to know the exact meaning of the reference or phrase used.

So look for that tomorrow, for A Shilling For Candles.

Asimov writes about A Whiff of Death

Isaac Asimov discusses his writing of A Whiff of Death in his autobiography, In Joy Still Felt. I reproduce some of what he says below:

[and there a reveal of the murderer, so beware]

On May 14, 1957, or thereabouts, Asimov began writing a straight mystery novel. He had been asked to do so by Isabel Taylor of Crime Club, Doubleday's mystery outlet (Doubleday being one of the publishers of his science and science fiction work.)

My first title was Sit With Death. After I had written two chapters, I sent it off to Isabelle Taylor and began a new science fiction story.

And

Meanwhile [while he was dealing with the threat of being fired from the Medical School because he did not have tenure, pg 99] all that month I had been racing to finish Sit With Death, my mystery novel. It was done on September 22, and I liked it a great deal. ...It had, not entirely coincidently, a subplot in which the professorial hero struggled to obtain tenure.

However, on October 4, Isabelle Taylor told him she didn't like the book, and rejected it. It was the first time Doubleday had ever rejected one of his books.

He retitled it A Whiff of Death and sent it to other publishers, but it was coninually rejected. (This despite the fact that at this time he was extremely well known as a science and science fiction writer. He was also doing battle with the Boston University Medical School at this time.)

I discovered, eventually, that the chief flaw in the book from the standpoint of the publishers was the inadequacy of the motive for the murder. It involved a PhD student faking results, and that seemed a tiny sin to most editorial readers.

When I gave fellowe professors an inkling of the plot, however, they shuddered and turned away from me, obviously suspecting some deep-seated perverse element in my nature even to imagine so heinous a crime. Too little for one group of people, too much for another.

Finally, Avon accepted the book, perhaps - thought Asimov - because they hoped to get some science fiction books out of him as well.

Several months pass.

On that December 10 trip to New York, I picked up an advance copy of the Avon paperback edition of my mystery. They called it The Death Dealers, a totally inapprpriate name. What's more, there was on the cover a beautiful woman holding a gun-which was fine except there was no beautiful women in the story and no gun. I complained, but the Avon editor told me the cover was simply a device to label the book as a mystery and it didn't necessarily have anything to do with the story.

The book was not a success in its original printing (because of the title, Asimov believes), but as Asimov says:

The poor reception that The Death Dealers received, both in manuscript and in print, deterred me [from writing a sequel with his police officer detective, Jack Doheny.]

He tells another story:

When I wrote the book, I was very anxious not to have anyone think I was satirizing the medical school [where he was teaching at Boston University School of Medicine], so I kept my mind firmly fixed on Columbia University [which he had attended], its physical plant, its faculty, even some of the graduate students I had known. It never occurred to me that anyone at Columbia would recognize the descriptions, but of course they did. It became a game there, trying to guess who the various characters were, and everyone wanted a copy.

and

On November 24, I had agreed to talk aty Columbia University the next March. Since I had left Columbia 15 years before, I have returned only once or twice and it hd become foreign territory to me. I was not foreign to the Columbia students, apparently.

I was to talk to the chemistry students in particular, and the young man who invited me told me with great glee that various faculty members would come and, in particular, that John M. "Pop" Nelson would be there. Pop Nelson had taught me undergraduate organic chemistry a quarter century before, and it was his appearance that I had taken in vain in my picture of the murderer in The Death Dealers.

What's more, the student referred to Pop Nelson as "Cap Anson," the name I had used in the book, and said that Nelson had read the book. I was horrified, and wrote to ask for assurance that Nelson had not been angered before I would agree to come. [Asimov had assumed he'd been dead for years when he wrote the book.]

Was the book's initial failure because of its titla, The Death Dealers? Asimov received the rights back from the initial publisher, and sold it to someone else for a reprint, when it was given his original title, A Whiff of Death, and that's when all the reprints came.