Book Review: “The Shape of Sand,” by Marjorie Eccles

Genre: historical fiction; mystery

Playlist…

Plot Summary: It is 1946.  When Vigilance Assurance buys the old Charnley House to renovate for modern offices, a dreadful secret is discovered behind the walls.  Family members of the pre-WWI era are contacted, but the police have more important things to do than investigate a cold case nobody cares about anymore.  Except the living relatives do care.  Beatrice Jardine left behind three young adult daughters the night she disappeared, all of whom are haunted by what they perceive happened.  What occurred on their mother’s fashionable trip to Egypt at the turn of the century?  Did the mysterious Mr. Iskander- part Egyptian, part Russian- have anything to do with her disappearance?  And what is eldest sister Vita hiding?  Can middle daughter Harriet and her niece Nina piece together the events to figure out what really happened?

My Book Review: I have no remembrance of how this title came recommended to me or how I discovered it.  I think it’s been on my TBR so long that I don’t remember how long.  But give me a cozy mystery—cold case fashion—and throw in a dash of the exotic and you’ve got me hooked.

I love the atmosphere of Agatha Christie’s foreign novels (Death on the Nile, Murder in Mesopotamia).  I love archaeology, I love all things Egyptian.  This book’s flavor definitely satisfied those desires.  The mystery had me immersed from the very beginning—switching from the more modern story of Harriet in post-WWII Britain to 35 years previously when her family resided at the glamorous country estate.  A cast of intriguing characters kept my attention.  And the story didn’t lag halfway through like so many often do.

The suspense was kept up through to the very end- to the epilogue and beyond, in fact.  I really have to give the author credit.  This is so hard to do and can be rare even in many cozy mysteries.  I liked that there wasn’t a lot of gore or bad language.  Is it a clean read?  This is a little difficult to answer, as a mystery by definition isn’t going to feature lots of people with pure motives.  SPOILER ALERT: There are characters who have had affairs; some characters live with each other unmarried; some characters have trysts.  There is an implied gay relationship.  END OF SPOILER.  However, none of this is gone into very descriptively, which I appreciated.

What I loved most about is that the author leaves the mystery open at the end, leaving you on your own to surmise what happened.  Here is my opinion of Who Did It and Why SPOILER ALERT: Clara Hallam, Beatrice’s maid genuinely believed she had killed her mistress all those years ago, and confessed and killed herself at the end of the book.  However, Beatrice was clearly still breathing when her husband entered the room.  Amory, who suspected that his wife was having an affair with his friend, Lord Wycombe, finished her off for a mixture of reasons.  One, because she was humiliating him behind his back, flirting with numerous fellows; two, because Lord Wycombe was actually his lover as well and Beatrice was coming between them, creating a love triangle.  Lord Wycombe entered the room soon after and knew Amory had killed his wife.  He helped his friend dispose of her body (he never was very keen on his affair with Beatrice) and the two kept each other’s secrets, only reluctantly calling in the police when it began to look too suspicious that they weren’t.  END OF SPOILER.  (My sister informs me that one has to have a dirty mind to figure this out. 😉 )

One thing I did wish was a little different was that I kept thinking Harriet was going to find lots of clues in the old box found at the beginning of the book.  It did include her mother’s diary, which did provide some information.  But the box wasn’t a treasure trove of clues needing to be pieced together.  I also thought that Harriet and her sisters were going to somehow “recreate” their mother’s birthday party as nearly as they could to that fateful night to help them stomp out who did it.  But this didn’t happen, either.  I think the book could have been even more interesting if it did.

I had never read anything by Marjorie Eccles before, but I am glad I started with this one as I feel the ending was genius and I have to say I’m impressed.  I think it can even compete with some of Christie’s mysteries.  Lovers of Downton Abbey will also enjoy it, I’m sure.  I am wanting to add a few more of her titles to my TBR.  They are the kind that give you anticipatory tingles!

 

Book Review: “Saffire,” by Sigmund Brouwer

Genre: historical fiction; Inspirational; intrigue; mystery; humor

Playlist… 

Plot Summary: James Holt has held a lot of jobs in his life: rancher, Rough Rider, Wild West showman, father.  But being hired as an investigator has never been one of them until now.  Arriving in Panama in 1910, he figures he will quickly turn the job down and return to his ranch in the Badlands.  But a young girl who reminds him of his daughter needs his help, and he soon finds himself in the hot mess of political intrigue.  What happened to Saffire’s mother?  What are the canal builders hiding about the recent mysterious deaths?  Who are the masked men behind his torture?  And just why has he been hired in the first place?

My Book Review: I remember enjoying Brouwer’s Accidental Detective mystery series when I was a kid.  I could never get enough of them!  But it’s been my experience that good children’s writers don’t make such good adult ones.  Since this was the first adult book I’d read by him, I wondered how this would prove.

It turns out that I didn’t have a problem with his level of writing.  A lot of the elements of what I loved from the kids’ mysteries were present in Saffire: lots of witty banter, surprising plot twists, hints of romance and lots of danger.  James Holt surely did get a few chuckles out of me.

However, as a mystery novel this escaped me but good.  Even when I concentrated hard, reread and reread what I just reread, I couldn’t get the same connections Holt seemed to be drawing.  The “revealing epilogue” only got me more confused and I still don’t understand what was supposed to have happened.  It sort of felt like Brouwer had had a lot of editing to do, the result being lots of missing links.

There were lots of characters- many of them the same type so that they all ran together, or wait- maybe they were the same ones just playing charades, except I couldn’t remember them from their previous appearance in the story.  The most interesting ones only surfaced two or three times at most and the title character was dropped a third of the way into the story.  T.B. Miskimon (who serves as Holt’s comedic dart board) was almost overused.

This book is published under the Inspirational genre, but there really isn’t more than a sentence to categorize it as such.  Just know it’s a clean read and that’s a plus.  One of my favorite parts was Holt’s tender father-daughter connection with Saffire.  I also liked that the romance wasn’t an overt theme.

I always enjoy learning history in my novels, so it was fascinating reading about the determined American spirit which built the Panama canal, how enormous and innovating the project was.  This was one of the things that made Theodore Roosevelt such a great president.  What new advances could Americans make with the same grit and ardor, I wonder?

If you like dry, sarcastic humor, I think you will like this one.  But if you’re going into it for the intrigue you might be disappointed.

This video the author made is pretty cool!  Check it out if you’re at all curious about T.B. Miskimon… Brouwer makes a remarkable discovery.

 

Book Review: “Arsene Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes”

Genre: suspense; mystery; early 1900’s

Playlist… 

Plot Summary: It all starts in an antique shop, where a professor purchases a convenient little writing desk for his daughter.  What he doesn’t know will ultimately be his downfall… which will then lead to his windfall.  Next, the murder of the Baron D’hautrec leads to confusion… and then order.  And lastly, the theft of a priceless ancient artifact leads to a false trail… which then becomes the true one.  All of these conundrums sound like the French superthief Lupin is involved, and English supersleuth Sholmes is on the trail!  Will they be able to escape each other?

My Book Review: Oh, these obscure vintage mysteries don’t get enough love in the book world!  They make for lively reads with very original plot twists.  Lupin makes an interesting heist-genre character in that he is too bad to be a Robin Hood, yet has a heart enough not to be a complete cold blooded con man.  He’s very choosy—not every valuable is worth stealing in his estimation.  And he plays matchmaker on occasion!  Even so, we should know enough not to believe one word of what he says.

The battle of English and French wits was fun and Sholmes’ interactions with his worshiping sidekick Wilson were hilarious and made for some of my favorite scenes.  A spoof on the popular Sherlock, of course.  But this isn’t purely a case of bumbling investigator against brilliant villain.  No, both are geniuses in their own vein—the question is, who is a step ahead of whom?

Arsene Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes is the second in the series by Maurice LeBlanc and they are translated from the original French.  I believe I enjoyed this book better than the previous, as the first one was more of a collection of short stories about Lupin whereas this felt connected enough to make a novel.  Short stories have just never been a thing with me.

These stories might have been written over a century ago, but there is something about them that make them so modernly appealing.  I encourage you to give these a try!

*This book also goes by the titles: The Blonde Lady or Arsene Lupin Versus Sherlock Holmes

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I also recommend:

 

Book Review: “Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief,” by Maurice LeBlanc

Genre: classic; adventure; mystery

Plot Summary: [from goodreads:] “The suave adventures of a gentleman rogue—a French Thomas Crown Created by Maurice LeBlanc during the early twentieth century, Arsene Lupin is a witty confidence man and burglar, the Sherlock Holmes of crime. The poor and innocent have nothing to fear from him; often they profit from his spontaneous generosity. The rich and powerful, and the detective who tries to spoil his fun, however, must beware. They are the target of Arsene’s mischief and tomfoolery. A masterful thief, his plans frequently evolve into elaborate capers, a precursor to such cinematic creations as Ocean’s Eleven and The Sting. Sparkling with amusing banter, these stories—the best of the Lupin series—are outrageous, melodramatic, and literate.”

My Book Review: This series grabbed my attention on Librivox a while back.  I wasn’t expecting too much out of them, but I at least wanted to try the first book, “…Gentleman-Thief”.  Each chapter is basically its own standalone short story featuring the hero (or antihero) Arsene Lupin.  I tend not to like short stories, but I was surprised by how delightfully colorful and entertaining these were!  They all kept me guessing and contained much cleverness and wit.  Is it really him, or not him, or him pretending to not be him pretending to be him?  How will he get out of that pickle in time… or did he plan the pickle and is already gone… or was he there all the time?  I second guessed myself until the last page of each story!

It was a bit hard for me to conquer the long chapters, but I pushed myself.  The copy I read was a Penguin edition which had annotated notes in the back for lots of references and cross references in Le Blanc’s stories.  I started to read them, but then felt they gave away too many surprises for later in the book and series.

I will definitely be continuing with more Arsene Lupin books.  If you’re looking for something a little different, if you love roguish, daring characters, if you’re looking for adventures in France—I think you’ll enjoy this read.

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BBC AudioDrama: “The Club of Queer Trades”

There isn’t much time left to listen to these; I only just discovered them on BBC Radio 4.  The drama is G.K. Chesterton’s “The Club of Queer Trades” and stars Martin Freeman.  I’ve found the two episodes I’ve listened to so far to be entertaining and very much like the book.  My favorite story out of the bunch is the first one, “The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown.”  If you have some time, give them a try.  I’ve been listening while working on making valentines.

 

Book Review: “A Flickering Light,” by Jane Kirkpatrick

Genre: Christian fiction; historical fiction; romance; coming of age story

Plot Summary: 15 yr. old Jessie dreams of becoming a photographer in the male dominated era of the turn of the century.  Her family are in poor straights leaving her and her sisters to get work wherever they can in the Midwestern city of Winona.  Jessie is fortunate to find employment with the Bauer portrait studio, and as the years go by she learns much about the business, her talent and capabilities, and about forbidden love.

My Book Review: I’d heard good things about the author Jane Kirkpatrick, so I was interested in reading my first book by her. A Flickering Light is the first in a two-book series called “Portraits of the Heart”.

The tale kept me going because I wanted to find out what would happen next, yet at the same time it had a very slow pace. I started to get bored about half way through because not much of anything new was happening by way of the plot.  However, things started tightening up a bit about 2/3 of the way in and my interest picked up.  I really liked how the book was interspersed with vintage photographs which made me wonder if this was based on a true story.

Mr. Bauer’s Studio in Winona.

It turns out, it is. Jessie is based on Jane Kirkpatrick’s own grandmother and we get to learn much about her as a young girl and what life was like in the early days of photography.  This escalates the appeal of the book even further.  It is interesting to see how photographers were able to accomplish so much without digital technology or even film.  We even get to ‘witness’ historic firsts in the art.

Another thing I appreciated was the taboo nature of the plot. SPOILER: Our character Jessie falls in love with her married employer (many years her senior) and struggles with what she knows is right and wrong.  We don’t often read of this in a Christian novel, and I think it makes for an interesting study. Jessie and Mr. Bauer don’t start out with wrong intentions.  Instead, a series of innocent events leads to a little more and then over a long period of time things turn into a lot more than they’d planned to.  Thankfully, Jessie comes from a good family who loves her and when they come to a realization of the truth they take it upon themselves to intervene. END OF SPOILER.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel (An Absence So Great). I did look up some of the history behind the real characters, but I would advise anyone else not to because it did create a spoiler for me as to what happens in the second book.  If you can be patient with a quiet, slow-moving story, I think you will appreciate this read.

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Listen to “The Man Who Was Thursday” on BBC

Are you in the mood for a little G. K. Chesterton?  I enjoyed reading “The Man Who Was Thursday” a few years ago (see my book review here), but I am enjoying Geoffrey Palmer’s reading of it even more!  For a limited time, you can listen to it for free on BBC Radio 4.

 

Book Review: “Lavender & Old Lace,” by Myrtle Reed

Genre: classic; romance

Plot Summary: Set at the turn of the century, career woman Ruth Thorne is on leave from her job as a journalist to stay at her aunt’s house by the sea.  While there, she uncovers a mystery in the attic concerning an old wedding dress, some newspaper clippings, and a lantern she is instructed to leave by the window every night.  How do all of these things tie together?  Who is the reclusive neighbor dressed in lavender and old lace?  And who is that charming young fellow down the lane?

My Book Review: Another sweet, light vintage read for me this year, simply dripping with mystery, lace, and romance.  I think I probably wanted to read this just because of the title.

I loved the character of Miss Ainslie the most! This is the reclusive older woman who lives next door to Ruth’s aunt, and the two used to be close friends.  I simply loved the description of her eclectic house and garden, and it made for a beautiful atmosphere.  Any scene which took place with Miss Ainslie had my attention.  The following is one of my favorite quotes I took from the book:

“The world had seemingly given up its beauty to adorn Miss Ainslie’s room. She had pottery from Mexico, China, and Japan; strange things from Egypt and the Nile, and all the Oriental splendor of the India and Persia.”

I also enjoyed the witty, humorous banter between Ruth and her lover. However, the book felt somewhat unbalanced as their romance took place too fast.  Then halfway through the story, Ruth’s aunt came back home from vacation dragging her long lost man behind her and that plot twist just felt too painful.  I was expecting Aunt Jane to be a mature, interesting person and looked forward to meeting her, but when she was introduced to the story I found her to be pitiful and short-sighted.  I would have felt sorry for her new husband, but I didn’t much like him either.

As much as I liked Miss Ainslie, she was also to be pitied as she goes through her daily ritual of being true to her own long lost love with no compensation after decades of loyalty. I found the whole story too unbelievable and miserable.  Honestly, I was glad when I was done with it.

If you like the hopelessly romantic stories of L. M. Montgomery, you may find some enjoyment out of this. Otherwise, I personally did not enjoy it and don’t particularly recommend.

You can listen to this book for free here.

I also recommend…

 

Book Review: “The Melting of Molly,” by Maria Thompson Daviess

Genre: classic

Plot Summary: Molly, a young widow, has a problem: she needs to lose weight and fast!  An old beau is renewing his acquaintance by coming back to his old hometown where she still lives, but she looks nothing like she did 10 years ago.  The only one who can help her attain her goal is the next door doctor.  But he likes her as she is.  What’s a girl to do when several men start to pay her more attention?

My Book Review: This was a fast, enjoyable read!  I originally discovered it on Librivox (listen to it for free here) and soon after found an old copy of it at a library book sale.  I found it cute that, in a story about a girl on a diet, a bookworm chewed a neat little hole through the edges of the pages.  🙂

The story takes place in the Gibson girl era, where things were not much different than they are today in that a woman’s worth was often judged on the dimension of her waistline. Only they had corsets back then to help them out.  Molly is a delightfully funny character, honest and vain, but thoroughly woman.  I loved the old illustrations throughout the book as well.  And the doctor was a swoon!  Perhaps one can see the ending from the start, but poor Molly can’t and it’s fun to watch her transformation when all the time she has a good man’s unconditional love.

This book is a simple read. Don’t expect too much out of it.  But if you are wanting to get into a cute little love story, this entertaining novel will probably satisfy.  Just ask the bookworm.

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Book Review: “The Phoenix and the Carpet,” by E. Nesbit

Genre: classic; children’s fiction; fantasy

Playlist…

Plot Summary: Four siblings- Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane- experience magic adventures once again, as they happen across a unique egg that hatches into a beautiful Phoenix.  Along with the egg comes a magic carpet that will take them on one wild ride after another, and that is only limited by their imagination.

My Book Review: One of my most popular posts on this blog has been my book review of E. Nesbit’s “Five Children and It.”  I’m glad to know these children’s books are treasured by new generations of readers.  The very definition of a classic is that it is timeless- it’s relatable, a standard, and often imitated.  Nesbit really did break the mold in children’s fiction.  Her stories tell of ordinary children who happen across magic in their daily life.

I did not grow up with Nesbit.  Instead, I became interested in her works after I discovered Edward Eager’s Tales of Magic series in the young adult section of my library in my late teens.  After reading several of his novels (in which he always pays homage to Nesbit), I decided to try her books as well.  To be honest, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic over Five Children and It.  Maybe there’s something wrong with me but being spoiled with Eager books, the Nesbit children felt bland in comparison.  However, I decided to keep trying because I don’t give up that easily.

I have to say I liked this second novel in the Psammead series much better than the first.  I believe these were both early works of hers, but she had a little more writing under her belt by the time she wrote this one.  One reason it appealed to me more was the exotic locales the children travel to on their magic carpet.  All the around the world we go- from India, to Persia, and a remote island in the Pacific.  Such fun!  But there are local adventures, too, such as when the Phoenix demands to be taken to his holy temple—the local fire insurance company!

The chapters are long, and I still find these four children boring and unrelatable compared to Eager’s children.  Perhaps that is because Eager wrote his books fifty years later.  I’m not sure.  And of course, there are different opinions out there and some may like Edith Nesbit much better.  To each his own.  But I still plan on continuing with more Nesbits…