Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Hallowe'en!

In honour of Hallowe'en, I will once again turn to my favourite mystery author - the Queen of Crime - Agatha Christie. Today's selection from the Christie canon is Miss Marple's last case: Sleeping Murder.


The novel begins with the arrival of lovely young Gwenda Reed to England. She has recently married a young man, Giles Reed. Giles has some sort of foreign service job that will necessitate a lot of moving around; occasionally accompanied by Gwenda, but sometimes not. The couple need a home base and have decided upon England. While Gwenda is from New Zealand, Giles is from England and it seems appropriate to establish themselves in that country. Both Giles and Gwenda are orphans but are fairly well off. Gwenda arrives in England to find a house and wait for Giles' arrival.

Gwenda leisurely tours the south coast of England, looking for the perfect house. She arrives at the seaside town of Dillmouth and immediately spots a house that is "her" house. After a brief tour in which Gwenda feels more and more at home, she impulsively buys the house and gets settled in. However, there are strange happenings in Gwenda's new house. A feeling, almost, like Gwenda has been there before. Gwenda hires are gardener to move the terrace steps over from the other side of the terrace to under the drawing room window. The gardener informs her that it will be an easy job, as someone has merely planted over the steps that were there before. Gwenda also has hired a contractor to make some renovations. However, Gwenda has another request for the contractors. She feels that there should be a door between the dining room and the drawing room, so that one does not have to go around by the hall. In fact, she is always trying to get into one room by going to a certain spot on the wall, as if there were a door there. She indicates to the contractors that they must make a door between the two rooms in that spot. The contractor agrees, and later confirms to Gwenda that the renovations will be really easy because there was already a door there that had been bricked up.

The last straw involves Gwenda's little bedroom. She is waiting for Giles to return before she moves into the master bedroom, so in the meantime she's staying in a comfortable little bedroom upstairs. The cook informs Gwenda that this room was probably a nursery at one point and Gwenda imagines what it might look like when she and Giles have children one day and picks out a lovely imaginary wallpaper: poppies alternating with cornflowers. One of the cupboards in the room has been painted over, and Gwenda must have the contractors pry open the doors. They do so, and Gwenda is shocked to find on the inside remnants of the original wallpaper on the walls: a pattern of poppies alternating with cornflowers.....How is Gwenda able to know so precisely about the previous state of the house? Gwenda is scared and accepts an offer to go stay with friends.

Gwenda travels to London to stay with friends: Raymond West and his wife Joan. Raymond is also entertaining his aunt, the sweet, elderly Miss Marple. West, Joan, Miss Marple and Gwenda go out to a play. Gwenda is enjoying herself until the last line of the play: "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young." Gwenda screams and bolts from the theatre. Upon arrival back at the house, Miss Marple goes in to comfort Gwenda. Gwenda explains that upon hearing those words she had a flashback of a memory: a voice saying those words and, looking through the banisters, seeing a dead woman lying out on the floor with her gold hair spread all around. Who is the dead woman? "Helen" Gwenda answers. But Gwenda does not know any Helens. Who is the mysterious Helen? Who murdered her? Why? Why does Gwenda know so much about a house she just bought? Miss Marple helps the pair (Gwenda and Giles) solve all these mysteries about an unsolved crime stretching back over 20 years.

This is an excellent and suspenseful Miss Marple. Gwenda's feelings about the house drive the suspense in the opening chapters, and an atmosphere of faint malice settles over the book as a whole. It is an excellent Marple - and one I don't always remember because it isn't in my omnibus collection.

However, there is also a sort of disjointed, out of time feeling surrounding the book as well. When World War Two came to London, Agatha Christie wrote two mysteries: one with Hercule Poirot (Curtain) and one with Miss Marple (Sleeping Murder). In the event that she was killed in the Blitz, these novels could be published as conclusions to both series. Fortunately, Agatha Christie survived and went on to write many more lovely Poirot and Marple stories.

When she did reach the end of her life, in the 1970's, Christie authorized these older works for publication. Curtain was published before her death in 1975, whereas Sleeping Murder was published after, in 1976. Interestingly enough, while Curtain really does effectively end the Poirot series, Sleeping Murder is less cut and dried as the end of the Marple series and seems to be more of a stand-alone mystery in the Marple canon.

Anyway, the publication out of time leads to some interesting inaccuracies in the book because it doesn't take into account all of the changes that took place in Miss Marple's world after the war which Christie so eloquently addressed in her post-war Marples. As such, it is an interesting little anomaly and probably should be read when it was written - in the 1940's, as opposed to when it was published. Chronologically it fits in much better with the earlier Marples.

The true final Marple is Nemesis, which I also reread recently. It sort of draws from some of the characters that Marple met in A Caribbean Mystery, but spins off a new story. To solve that mystery, Miss Marple must also go back into the past. Miss Marple is more frail in Nemesis than she is depicted in Sleeping Murder, and I think that Nemesis makes a more fitting final Marple than does Sleeping Murder.

Friday, October 29, 2010

The Joy of Servants

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be Queen and live in a palace and be taken care of by hundreds of servants? (Hmmm...maybe just me.) Anyway, if you have, the book At Home With The Queen: The Inside Story of the Royal Household by Brian Hoey, will answer all your questions. At times, it will make you wish you had servants. However, it may make you glad you are not the Queen.


As the title implies, At Home With The Queen is an inside look at the workings of Buckingham Palace and the management of the Queen's household in general. (We are discussing Elizabeth II.) The author talks to actual former servants with the Queen's household to get the full, detailed picture. The Queen has her servants sign iron-clad confidentiality agreements, but if the stories are told anonymously, it seems to be okay. The majority of the sources in Hoey's book are uncredited. The Royal Family are now very serious about the confidentiality agreements. The Queen's former governess, Marion Crawford, wrote a sappy little memoir about her time taking care of the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Although the book was nothing but favourable towards the Royals, and portrayed the little Princesses as nothing short of angels, the Royal Family cut out all contact with Crawford.

If you are a royalty junkie like me, you will be exclaiming over all the new interesting facts and stories on every page. (And annoying your husband greatly by telling him every new fact on every page.) I really enjoyed the behind the scenes look at how stuff works - how one gets hired as a servant and how the servant hierarchy is almost more strict than the Royal hierarchy. The servants follow an incredibly strict precedence system which governs where they eat lunch! It all depends on who you work for and how long you've been there. I liked learning about the set-up for a giant banquet at the palace: setting up the giant table which must be polished by a footman wearing dustcloths on his feet; the 7-hour table setting time; measuring the place settings with a ruler; and the green light, red light system of serving food to the guests.

I found it interesting that the housemaids have to vacuum backward so as to vacuum over their steps, and that no vacuuming takes place before 8am so as not to wake up Her Majesty, or any other Royals which may still be sleeping. The footmen are in charge of taking out the Queen's flotilla of corgis for walkies every day, and as it is a highly despised chore, the newest footman usually gets stuck with the task. I think I would like my own valet, or dresser: they would lay out all my clothes for me every morning and take care of my (hopefully extensive) wardrobe. I am glad, however, that they no longer are required to actually dress the Royal in question - it would be very strange to have some person helping you on with your clothes like you are a 3 year old.

This book also gives great insight into why the Royals are like they are. You also learn a lot about the personalities of the individual Royals: the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. Of course the Royals aren't like everyone else - they are surrounded by servants all of the time. There is always someone around to fetch and carry, bring lunch, take it away, carry out all the little errands, and all the other minutiae of regular life we just take for granted. It is just a totally and completely different world. This makes me wonder how Autumn Phillips is doing. She is a regular Canadian girl who met, fell in love with, and married the Queen's eldest grandchild, Peter Phillips (son of the Queen's only daughter, Princess Anne). (Despite the fact that his mother is a Princess, Peter Phillips doesn't have a title as titles are passed through the male line and his father, Captain Mark Phillips, does not have a title.) I am not sure what the servant level is like in the Phillips household (as currently they live in Hong Kong), but there would be more servants when the Royal Family is all together for holidays at Balmoral or Sandringham, and I can just imagine what a shock it must be to her. (On a happy note, Autumn and Peter are expecting their first baby in December 2010 - the Queen's first great-grandchild.)

It would be kind of neat to work for the Queen, even as a servant. One drawback - she doesn't pay very well. Prince Charles is where to go if you want the dough: he has the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, so he can afford to pay his servants a little more. I would, however, LOVE to work for the College of Arms. This organization does genealogical research into both ordinary and aristocratic families. They are involved in tracing descendants of aristocratic families to bestow titles, and in establishing coats of arms. They even have genealogical information for the colonies, including the United States (a former colony) and Canada. Researching aristocratic and non-noble families? Sign me up!

In general, I really quite enjoyed the book and all its fascinating nuggets of royal information. One tiny quibble: I would have organized the book in a slightly different fashion. The book seemed to be divided between giving information about the Queen's household in general at all her properties and between being an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at Buckingham Palace. So there was some very detailed information about some specific things at Buckingham Palace, such as State Dinners, but then also other chapters on different types of servants and what it was like in the "good old days" for servants of Royalty. I would have appreciated a little more detail about the Queen's other residences comparable to what was being told about Buckingham Palace (such as Windsor) or maybe less detail about Buckingham Palace and more of an overall view. However, that does not detract from the fact that this is a very interesting book, not about the Royal Family, but about those who work for and with the Royals and what goes on behind the scenes.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Forest of Trees

Now that the beds are all tidied up, the garden tools are put away in the garage, and the garden covered with a soft blanket of snow, this means that gardening books are finished for the season, right? Wrong! This is the best time of the year to read gardening books. There's a lot of winter here in Canada, and you definitely can't garden in it - but you can read about gardens, gardening, and plants.

I am in the lucky position of being able to start my garden beds from scratch. (Apparently the previous owners weren't gardeners.) Aside from one spruce tree (which, I'm sad to say, I think we're going to have to take out) I have a free reign as to bed, plant, and tree placement. Aside from the aforementioned lonely spruce tree, there are no other trees on the property. (Although there are lots of nice [lilac, apple, Russian olive] and not so nice [Manitoba maple, giant spruce with big fat roots right through our vegetable garden!] trees around the property.) I like trees, and so I've been looking for a few options for the back and front yards.

Some of you may remember a post from a few months ago about a book on trees that I was super excited about until I read it, and then was disappointed due to its lack of options for my climate zone. I should have followed my own advice - when gardening, read local! Following my good advice I picked up this book at the library the other day:


It's called Tree & Shrub Gardening for Alberta, by Don Williamson and am I ever glad I picked it up! It is an excellent resource for an Alberta gardener interested in adding trees and shrubs to their landscape. It is such a good book that I think I am going to have to purchase a copy so I have it around as an easy reference.

The book offers more than just an abundance of options in the tree and shrub department. There are also handy sections on purchasing, planting, pruning, and propagating trees and shrubs. There is also a section on different problems and pests that may be encountered, and how to deal with these problem insects or diseases in a way that is environmentally responsible. More and more gardeners these days are realizing that the widespread use of chemicals in the garden kills off the good bugs as well as the bad and gardeners are turning to different methods to control pests and diseases.

But these lovely features are just icing on the cake. The book would be worth buying alone for the sheer abundance of trees and shrubs that it offers. Some are old favourites, some I've never heard of, and some I never thought about growing here. I've come up with a few new options for trees that I wouldn't have ever thought of were it not for the book. (I've also decided I'm going to have to open a tree farm or work on getting a bigger piece of land so I can have more trees!) The majority of the plants are zone 3, but there are some zone 2 and some zone 4. There are trees and shrubs for every taste - from small blueberries to giant elms. Each tree or shrub has a detailed entry with multiple photos. The entry gives all the features of the tree and discusses the recommended varieties. As well, each entry lists the basics at the beginning: height, spread, and zone. (Any change in this standard is noted under each variety.) The entry also lists the different pests and problems that are associated with each tree or shrub so that the gardener knows what he or she is getting in to with the purchase of that tree. One has to be a little more careful with the purchase and placement of trees and shrubs - they are a lot more permanent than some perennials or annuals!

This is a terrific gardening book for the the Alberta gardener who is looking to add trees or shrubs to their garden, or who already has trees and shrubs and wants to know how to take care of them. In short, this is a perfect book for every Alberta gardener.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Grayscale

Jasper Fforde is the witty and entertaining author of the Thursday Next books, which I have discussed on this blog before. He is very good at creating complex alternate realities. This skill is especially evident in his new book Shades of Grey.

Now, this is the second time I've read Shades of Grey. I'm a rabid Fforde Ffan, so when I found out he was coming out with a new book, I put it on hold immediately at the library and read it as soon as I could. The book, while amazing and puzzling on the first read, improves with a second read. On the first read, the reader is still trying to fit all the pieces together about the strange world inhabited by the residents of the novel. On the second read, the reader is able to concentrate more on the story instead of all the weirdness going on.

It is hard to describe the plot of the book without really getting into the complex world Fforde has created. But I'll try. Young Eddie Russett has been sent to East Carmine (from his home town of Jade-under-Lime) to conduct a chair census. He is worried as this will inhibit his chances of marriage with his almost-fiance Constance Oxblood. Eddie's father accompanies him to East Carmine as a replacement swatchman. Along the way, Eddie meets Jane Grey, a lovely spitfire of a girl who insists on breaking the rules of their strict society. And did I mention that Eddie only sees the colour red? And that the world is suffering from a lack of spoons? And that swans are dangerous carnivorous birds? And that people get high off looking at swatches of lime green? And that the whole society is ordered based upon colour perception and various rules from someone named Munsell? Colour and colour perception is key to this book, but Fforde also throws in board games, the Wizard of Oz, and the Muppets. (Although I didn't pick up on the Muppets until my second read.) The world could be Earth after some sort of disaster - there are references to the Previous (who I assume to be us) and I think the book takes place in Wales. Maybe. Or what was Wales.

I told you it was strange! I quite enjoyed my second read because by then I was already vaguely familiar with Fforde's unique world and could concentrate on the story and follow how Eddie puts together the pieces of the conspiracy. Or at least the beginning of the pieces - there are two sequels coming up and I can't wait to read them.

Wikipedia is your friend with this book - I recommend searching "Munsell", "colourblindness" and "trichromacy". I learned all sorts of interesting facts about colour perception. All those will help and add to your perception of the novel. That said, I still don't understand everything about the world and I love it! I am looking forward to the other books and seeing how the conspiracy plays out, but also how the world came to be.

One final note: I've categorized this book under "eclectic" instead of "fantasy". I suppose the fact that this book takes place in an alternate reality qualifies it as fantasy (or maybe sci-fi depending on the nature of that world), but for me fantasy involves more mystical creatures and myths: things such as unicorns, fairies, elves, and the like. This book has none of those things and is just plain weird. But enjoyable. But not fantasy.

So, read this book once to marvel at the incredible uniqueness of the world. Then read it again and enjoy it for the story. Then hope that the sequel comes out soon!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

One Story of Success

Another popular non-fiction book that I really wanted to read was Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It falls into the same kind of category as Freakonomics (although not about economics); a book about the social sciences (or sciences) written in a way that a regular reader can understand. For me, Outliers didn't work nearly as well as Freakonomics, but it was still interesting.

Outliers is a story about success; what are the factors that make someone successful? An "outlier" refers to a thing (person, data point, etc.) which exists away from a usual body of that same thing. Statistically, say, all the data points cluster around 5, while one data point is way out at 9. For a human example - Bill Gates vs. all the peons that work for Microsoft. I'm sure many of the people that work for Microsoft are bright and intelligent; but only one of them is Bill Gates.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I can safely assume that outliers can refer to people on the other end of the social scale too - those who are just incredibly unsuccessful. If average people are clustered somewhere around the middle, and there are highly successful outliers on the high end of the scale, would there not be highly unsuccessful outliers at the other end of the scale too? That might be an interesting book.)

At any rate, the book is about success (financial and professional success, mainly - but I'll come to that in a minute.). We learn about hockey players and the special month of January; IQ studies and family income; why 10,000 hours is the magic number; Jewish lawyers in New York; rice paddy farming in China; why Korean airlines used to be the one of the worst airlines for crashes; and why summer vacation in schools is obsolete. All of it is very interesting, but I have a few bones to pick with the author.

His point about success is that it's not just the hard work and effort you put into something or even your innate talent; success is also a product of your lifestyle and surroundings. For example, hockey players. Hockey players' birthdates seem to cluster around the beginning of the year; especially January. This is not because being born in January gives you some magical affinity to snow and ice - it all relates to the cutoff dates for hockey programs for children. The cutoff date is January 1st. Let's say we have two kids, born in the same year - one on January 2nd and one on Dec.31. The kids are nearly a calendar year apart in age, but are competing for the same spot on the team. The older kid (Jan.2nd) is going to appear to have better skills simply because of his age. So he gets put on the better team and receives more training than Dec.31st. So even if the two kids have roughly the same skill set, Jan.2nd is going to get better opportunities and better training than Dec.31st and so Jan.2nd will end up being better in the long run than Dec.31 due to the increased training.

This is actually borne out by the numbers and various studies - at all levels of hockey. So, if you want your kid to be a better hockey player, aim for a birthdate somewhere in the early months of the year (January-April). (And, of course, hope that your kid likes hockey!) But what about those kids born the rest of the year? Does that mean the kids born near the end of the year are more talented? Better skaters/puck handlers/playmakers? I can only come to the conclusion that they must be to be able to make it against the large roster of kids from the beginning of the year. Gladwell's solution is that leagues for kids be divided by age. His point is that we're missing a whole bunch of talented kids who are born in the later months of the year because they're physically younger than the early month kids they're competing against. My point is that if they were talented enough they'd get in anyway! And some of them must be talented enough - because there are kids who do come from the end of the year who are terrific hockey players. Maybe instead of finding more hockey players from the end of the year who are better, maybe we're just promoting more average hockey players from the beginning of the year and making them better through practice hours. Because obviously we're already getting the best of the end of the year if they can make it through at all.

I also have a few questions about the conclusions he draws from an IQ study done in, I believe, California. A number of children with genius-level IQs were identified, and followed throughout their school years and adult lives. The study showed that even though every child had a genius IQ, not every child ended up in a job/career that used that IQ. For example, kids from middle and upper income homes were more likely to have obtained advanced university degrees than kids from lower income homes. Gladwell concludes that, therefore, it's not just the high IQ, it's also the environment that you grow up in that's responsible for your success (nature AND nurture). And I don't entirely disagree with that....except that a small number of children from lower income homes also obtained advanced university degrees as well. Now, presumably, these kids don't have all the advantages that someone from a higher income home would have. Yet, they still managed to be successful and obtain an advanced university degree. I don't think we can conclude definitively that environment also has something to do with it. And aren't these kids the real outliers? Shouldn't the book be about them?

A lot of what Gladwell says in the book does make sense - in some cases, success is part of being in the right place at the right time. Luck is a big factor. For example, the Jewish lawyers in New York. Because of when they were born, they couldn't get a job at the rich white snobby firms in New York, and had to start their own firms. These little firms did all the corporate takeover work for companies - an area that would suddenly skyrocket and shoot these little firms to prominence over the snobby white firms that didn't do that kind of law. So, luck is an essential part of success.

Where I also quibble with is his definition of success. I don't think he ever explicitly defines success in the book, but it is implied that success is monetary and professional - make lots of money, have a good job, be good at math/computers, etc. Not everyone measures that as success. Not everyone is Bill Gates because not everyone had the opportunities with computers that Bill Gates had growing up AND because not everyone has the interest in computers that Bill Gates does. Interest is just as an important part of success as is hard work, luck, social background and ability. If you're not interested in computer programming, it doesn't matter how many hours you get to use a mainframe computer in the 1970's - you're not going to use it and you're not going to become Bill Gates. Not everyone can be Bill Gates - is that not the definition of an outlier?

There's a particularly sad chapter at the end of the book which talks about a special academic school open for children from lower income families; the poorest of the poor. These children go to school all day and part of the weekend. No summer break. One little girl doesn't finish her homework until 11pm that night and wakes up before 6am the next day to get to school. She's 12. There's no time for play, for fun, for daydreaming - all the hallmarks of the creative mind. The schedule involves English, Science, Social Science, Math (2 hours a day by Grade 5), half an hour of "thinking skills" a day, two hours of Music a week, Orchestra every day, and Sports teams after Orchestra. What about Art or Drama? What about learning other languages? What about gym? (And this comes from someone who passionately hated gym all throughout school.) Sure, the kids are great at math, but heaven forbid they need to come up with something creative! Success is not solely defined by being good at math. Sure, a lot of careers require excellent math abilities, but many instead require creativity. I'm not sure where creativity and relaxation and play fits in to this curriculum at all. There is more to life, and success, than math. Math ability is one measure of success, but it is not the only measure of success, and that is where the book falls apart, to an extent. By focusing on such a narrow view of success, the reader is able to poke holes in the author's arguments to some extent. Isn't success also a personal viewpoint? A person may not have the outward trappings of material success, but that person could still be feeling successful at their life - they have a good relationship with their husband, they have a nice garden, they have a happy and healthy baby, or any other thing that makes that person feel successful. When success is so linked to an individual's perception, I think it's difficult to lay down ground rules as to how people are successful, because success is individual.

So, while Outliers was an interesting book, I don't entirely agree with all of the points the author makes. However, if you like a good argument with your reading material, this book's for you! I'm also interested to check out other books by Gladwell and see what else he has to say.

And, finally, one more photo for those cat lovers out there. Enjoy!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Two Beauties

I love fairy tales. Fairy tales were some of my favourite reading as a child and I am so glad that many adult writers are taking these fairy tales and spinning them into full-length adult novels. (As an aside, I thought I'd point out that the books I discuss below are both filed under teen - but they can be enjoyed by adults too!) One of my favourite fantasy writers, Robin McKinley, has done just that with the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast". However, McKinley's case is unique - she has written two very different versions of the fairy tale. I cannot recall any other author returning to the same inspiration and subject matter as an already published (and critically acclaimed) novel. I've read both versions and thought it would be interesting to read them back to back. Here are the results.

Both novels follow the familiar lines of the tale - merchant with three daughters loses all his wealth and must leave the big city for a small town. Beauty adapts cheerfully to the surroundings while the evil sisters whine. Father eventually returns to the city as a lost ship has come in. He is unable to get roses for his daughter Beauty in the city and returns home. On the way home he is lost in a storm and takes shelter at a magnificent palace. Upon leaving the next day, he plucks a rose, thereby incurring the wrath of the Beast, who demands a daughter in return. Beauty volunteers and goes to live with the Beast at the castle. Despite his ugly and terrifying appearance, Beauty senses his good heart underneath. Yet she misses her family and must return. However, once she returns to her family, she realizes that she loves the Beast and returns to his castle only to find him dying. She declares her love for him, which releases the spell and turns the Beast back into a man. The evil sisters are punished and Beauty marries her de-enchanted prince and lives happily ever after.

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast is McKinley's first attempt at the tale. It was published in 1978, at the beginning of her career as a writer. From the very beginning the unique and reflective voice of the narrator grabs you. The story is told in first person from Beauty's point of view, and she is an excellent story-teller. Beauty's real name is Honour, but she disliked the name and renamed herself Beauty as a child. She is stubborn and studious - an excellent and voracious reader. Her two elder sisters are also virtues personified - Grace and Hope. However, unlike the fairy tale, Grace and Hope are kind, gentle and good. There is a close knit relationship between the sisters and their elderly merchant father.

Beauty's eldest sister Grace is engaged to one of her father's shipmen, Robbie. When the merchant loses his fleet, Robbie is presumed dead. Hope also is engaged to one of her father's employments, a shipbuilder named Gervain. He wants to return to the area of the country where he grew up, and has accepted a job to work as a blacksmith in the town where his aunt lives. After the merchant loses his fleet, it is decided that Grace, Beauty, and their father will go with Gervain and Hope and live with them in the little town far away in the country.

The rest of the story proceeds as usual and Beauty is the sister that must travel to the Beast's castle. The castle and environs are lovingly described. Beauty is served by enchanted invisible servants, but eventually learns to understand their language and overhear their conversations.

At the castle, Beauty spends her days reading and studying, riding her horse Greatheart, and conversing with the Beast. After her natural fear for the Beast has worn off, she finds him an excellent companion. They read together and eat together - but the Beast spoils every meal by asking Beauty to marry him. She invariably replies no.

Beauty is homesick, but she understands that it is her duty to stay with the Beast. However, she has magical dreams that allow her to "peek in" on what is happening to her family. The Beast shows her how he is able to send her these visions, and Beauty sees one of the city - Robbie and his ship have come back alive! Grace is unknowing, and is being pushed into marriage with the young minister by her sister Hope. Beauty knows she must return and stop Grace's engagement to the minister by letting her know that her true love Robbie has returned. The Beast is reluctant, but lets Beauty go.

As before, Beauty does not realize her love for the Beast until it is almost too late. Fortunately, the story ends happily, as Beauty confesses her love for the Beast, saving his life and breaking the enchantment. The book ends with the promise of a triple ceremony - Grace and Robbie, Beauty and the Beast, and Beauty's father and Gervain's aunt Melinda.

This is one of my favourite fairy tale retellings. The story grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let you go. Beauty is an engaging and interesting heroine. Her intelligence shines through the page. She is not the sappy sweet princess of most fairy tales - she is a unique, interesting, and intelligent person. The novel follows the fairy tale for the most part, but I enjoy the sisters being friendly to each other, instead of having two evil sisters. This is a lovely and delightful tale.

Rose Daughter is McKinley's second novelization of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairytale. It was published in 1997 and contains an afterward explaining why McKinley returned to the fairy tale that she'd already told. She had more to say about the story in general, and roses in particular.

This tale is not told in the first person, so immediately there is distance between the characters and the reader. I think I prefer the first person narration of Beauty instead. Another difference that one notices right away is that there is a lot more magic in this novel. Lashings of magic, even. While magic was implied in Beauty and definitely came into the novel in the Beast's castle, there did not seem to be that much magic in everyday life. There is a lot more everyday magic in Rose Daughter.

Again, of course, the book follows the story. The three sisters are Lionheart (brave and fierce), Jeweltongue (witty and quick-spoken) and Beauty. Beauty in this book is not the strong, intelligent heroine that she is in Beauty. That is not to say that she is dumb - she is not! She is just not of the same scholarly bent as the first Beauty. This Beauty is kind, and good, and patient, and sweet. Not quite sickly sweet, but almost there. I think I prefer the first Beauty to the second Beauty.

There is also a greater emphasis on roses in this tale. Roses in this world are almost a magical flower and require magic to grow. They are very rare. Beauty is an avid gardener - a talent she puts to good use when the father and sisters must leave the city. They settle at Rose Cottage - a property left to them in a will by an old woman. Lionheart becomes the cook, and then disguises herself as a man to work in the stables at the local squire's house. Jeweltongue becomes a seamstress and is soon taking in work from all over the village. Beauty gardens. She manages to restore the vegetable garden to its former glory, but is confused by all the thorny shrubs planted around the house and in the garden. However, they bloom, and Beauty realizes they are roses. (The reader will have already figured this out.)

When Beauty is sent to live with the Beast, she discovers a glasshouse full of dead rosebushes on the property. She makes it her task to restore the roses and get them to regrow. The glasshouse is the only friendly part of the Beast's castle. The castle in this tale is much more mysterious and malevolent than in the first tale. And what of the Beast? He is darker in this one - a little more like a romantic hero - tall, dark, and melancholy. He cares for Beauty, but I think their connection is not as developed as in the first tale.

Beauty has to return suddenly home when she discovers that the squire's evil son is going to expose Lionheart as a girl and will reveal a mysterious "curse" involving three sisters who live at Rose Cottage that will disrupt the family's peace. She returns home, only to find that while she has been gone only a week, her family has been without her for 7 months. Beauty comes home and reassures her sisters that she will be alright. She must return before the last petal falls on the rose. Because time moves differently between the two worlds, she nearly misses her opportunity to return. However, she does return to tell the Beast she loves him, and face off against the forces of darkness before she and the Beast can be happily ever after (with a slight twist to the usual ending that I'm not sure I entirely approve of).

By now you will probably have come to the conclusion that I prefer Beauty to Rose Daughter. Yes, you would be correct! There is more of a sens of humour to the first book - it is a little more lighthearted in places and Beauty is able to laugh at herself. The Beauty in Rose Daughter is quite a bit more serious. The setting is a little more serious too - the castle is darker and more actively malevolent than in the first book, where it was just magically sterile. But on the whole, I prefer Beauty to Rose Daughter, even after reading them back-to-back. Beauty's visit home in Beauty is more practical than in Rose Daughter. In Beauty, Beauty must return to prevent her sister from marrying the wrong man. In Rose Daughter, Beauty returns because she is homesick. But she has only been gone 7 days! And then she returns home, is there for maybe 15 minutes, and then magically returns back to the Beast's castle. She only returns because it is mandated by the fairy tale, it seems, and not because the author wanted her to. So the return of Beauty in the second book is somewhat forced.

Further, I greatly prefer the first Beauty to the second Beauty. This may be a function of the narrative changes - first person vs. third person. You get to know the Beauty of the first book better and she is a much more well rounded character than the Beauty of the second book, who is just a little too good and sweet to be true. Beauty of the first book has a little more humour, a well-developed sense of irony, and can laugh at herself. Beauty of the second book is quite serious, and sweet and patient and uncomplaining. A nice character, to be sure, but not as interesting to read about as the first Beauty.

However, whether you read Beauty, Rose Daughter, or both, I do urge you to read one of them. Both books show McKinley's skill at creating a memorable, magical world. And if you read both, let me know what you think of Beauty and Rose Daughter. Which did you prefer?

I will end slightly off topic. Sometimes I take photos of book for my blog on the table, sometimes I take them on the floor. However, when taking them from the floor, sometimes I have a little feline assistance:

Seems my cats want in on the action too! (Or at least one of them.) Sometimes they sit in front of my monitor too - a little difficult then to see what I'm writing. However, I'll forgive them as long as they continue to sit on my lap and purr as I'm reading all the great stories for this blog.

Friday, October 15, 2010

History Master?

Everyone knows that I love historical fiction. There are so many amazing stories from history just crying out for a little good fictionalization so the reader can really get inside the heads of the people involved. Some good non-fiction historical writing will do this for you. All good historical fiction should do this for you - and all my favourite authors (Sharon Kay Penman, Judith Merkle Riley, Fiona Buckley) make it happen. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles? Not quite.

How did I learn about Ms. Harrod-Eagles? Well, it involves Wikipedia. After I read my book on the Stuarts (see sometime in September) I was curious about other members of the Stuart family, especially the children of Elizabeth the Winter Queen (daughter of James I, ancestress of the Hanovers and today's royal family). One of her children was Prince Rupert (for those Canadians out there - he's the namesake of the famous Rupert's Land that eventually became part of Canada). He was a brave and dashing cavalier who spent his life helping his English relative Charles II reclaim the throne. So, at any rate, I was reading the wiki article about Prince Rupert when it mentioned that he was a main character in a historical novel by the same Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. A few more wiki-links later, and I learn that Ms. Harrod-Eagles is a historical fiction writer who has written a whole series about the Morland family - a wealthy/noble/aristocratic family in England from War of the Roses times to nearly present day. I love epic stories of aristocratic families, so I put the first book on hold and waited anxiously for it to come.

(I should point out here the dangers of over-reliance on Wikipedia - a typo in Harrod-Eagles' list of works misstated her first book as The Foundling instead of correctly as The Founding. Which made it a little difficult to find in the library catalogue at first!)

The first book in Harrod-Eagles' Morland dynasty series is The Founding. It looks like the books are being reissued and I have a fancy shiny new version. The Founding takes place around the time of the Wars of the Roses. Mad King Henry VI is on his throne, and members of the York family are trying to topple him and establish the Yorkist heir in his place. (Now is not the time or place for a long discussion on the Wars of the Roses, so for anyone interested, I urge you to check out Lancaster & York: The Wars of The Roses by Alison Weir. It is an incredibly detailed book about that time period that should hopefully answer all your questions. Or if you don't want to read that book, post your questions in the comments below and I'll answer them [as I've read and own the book].)

The book is not really about the struggle between Lancaster and York as it is more about how the family deals with it. Eleanor Courteney is a young woman of good family but little fortune who is allied with the Lancastrian cause. Her ward-holder arranges a marriage between her and the son of a wealthy sheep farmer in England's north - Yorkshire. At first Eleanor is appalled by the low conditions of her new husband's home, and by her new husband, the shy and worshipping Robert Morland. However, she manages to make a place for herself and build up a great empire, while turning the Morland family into a grand family of England's north.

Real historical characters pop up throughout the book. Eleanor is passionately in love with Richard, Duke of York (father of Edward IV), and transfers her family's allegiance to the Yorkist cause - losing some sons and grandsons in battle along the way. Eleanor has 13 children with Robert - not all of them living, and not all of them necessary for the plot (such as the older daughter Anne and younger son John) (unless their descendants come back in another novel down the line). But this book isn't really about what is happening to the Yorks and Lancasters, and sometimes the interaction feels a little forced. Yes, people would have been greatly affected by the Wars of the Roses, but sometimes it just feels like too much that this non-noble family would have been so friendly with the Yorks. At least, however, I agree with the characterizations of these main players in the Yorkist-Lancastrian feud. (For those of you wanting some truly excellent historical fiction about the Wars of the Roses - and specifically the Yorks and Lancasters - read The Sunne in Splendor by Sharon Kay Penman. This is a superb novel and an excellent read about that time period and the motivations of the main parties during this turbulent time in England's history.)

So, with all this historical realism, what was wrong with the book? It never pulled me away from my time into its time like the best Sharon Kay Penman novels will do. At times I felt like I was reading a monk's chronicle of what happened. She had this baby, she had that baby, this child got married, this child had that baby and etc.. Did I feel any emotion or cry when the sons died? No - and usually I'd need a kleenex or two if I really cared about the characters. There's no real sense of setting and place - there are descriptions of the sumptuous clothes worn by Eleanor (which is good - I like clothing descriptions) (at times they seemed a little too sumptuous - this is not even a noble family!), but the book didn't have that same sense of reality one gets from Penman's books where you feel like you really are there. That's not to say that Harrod-Eagles needs to spend paragraphs and paragraphs on description, but sometimes I never really felt like I was anywhere - the characters didn't even seem to acknowledge where they were.

Also, I understand the need for a family tree, sort of. (All my favourite non-fiction books have family trees!) But I almost wished they didn't have one, because when I wasn't sure where a plot line was going to go, I could just flip to the family tree and say, oh, okay, don't worry, he doesn't die now, or oh, this baby's going to be a girl. So maybe a little too much information here?

Speaking of too much information, sometimes there were too many character names. Don't bother in calling the maid Beatrice for 3 pages when in the next chapter you've jumped 3 years, explain that Beatrice has gone off to be married, and then you never hear from her again. I didn't need to know she was named Beatrice! There were other, more important characters that I should have focused on.

I'm also wondering how accurate it was - the way that some of the young ladies in the book behaved was not exactly how I pictured young ladies of gentle birth of that time to be acting. It is difficult - I understand that - the modern woman needs a modern heroine so she can have a point of entry into the book. A woman's lot has changed drastically since the 1400's and I think it can be hard for modern women to realize just how restrictive life was before, well, even 1970 I would say. But there seemed a lot of running around and sneaking out of the house that a parent wouldn't countenance now, nevermind in the 1400's when a young woman was the property of her family.

The book was published in 1980, so perhaps styles of historical fiction have changed since the book was published. Despite my lack of reaction to the book, I am curious enough to want to know what happens to the other Morlands, so I will pick up the next book in the series. I would argue with the blurbs on the back of the book - it's not a "masterpiece of research" nor is it a "page turner" nor is it "The yardstick by which all historical novels are measured." (Obviously, for me, that's Penman.) But it's an okay read and a fairly interesting story, despite my criticisms. I'll try a couple more in the series - maybe I'll like some of the other family members better.

I wouldn't mind some feed-back from my other historical-fiction minded readers out there. (I know there's at least one of you!) Have you read any of the Morland dynasty series? How were they? What do you think of Harrod-Eagles? Are my criticisms apt, or too harsh? Let me know your thoughts on Harrod-Eagles - and do go out and read some Penman. She's excellent!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fantastical Bees

This weekend I reread a beautiful story by one of my most favourite fantasy authors ever - Robin McKinley. Instead of writing vast series about one particular land, McKinley writes lovely little books about different lands and very rarely continues a series. Each fantasy world is perfectly imagined and completely draws you in. The book I read this weekend was Chalice.

Now, I don't want to say too much about this book. I want you to read and experience it like I did - not too sure what is going on, but picking up how things work and the clues along the way. Learning along with the character, actually, because Mirasol has unexpectedly found herself in a position of importance in her land. The reader grows with Mirasol as she discovers how to use her newfound abilities.

I do, I suppose, have to tell you a little bit about the book or you probably won't read it. It reads like a myth or chronicle of old and the story just sweeps you along as it goes. And when it ends, you are sad at the ending and want more - not necessarily of Mirasol, but more stories from other parts of this land - stories referred to in the chronicles so poured over by Mirasol. There is a dreamy quality to this work that I quite like. It really helps to pull you in to McKinley's lovely little world.

Mirasol is a resident of Willowlands - one portion (demesne) of an unnamed kingdom. The king oversees the demesnes with an Overlord. Each individual demesne is ruled over by a Master with the assistance of a Chalice and a Circle. The Circle is a group of advisers that help the Master govern his demesne. The Chalice is something special. The position of Chalice appears to always be held by a woman, and is tied to liquid in some form - usually wine or water. This liquid is carried in a special cup (or chalice) held by the Chalice and served by her at all important meetings. The Chalice will mix in different herbs and put stones in the bottom of the cup depending upon the nature of the meeting and the participants of the meeting. The purpose of the cup is to help bind the decisions made at the meeting, to tie the people closer to their land, or to help calm and strengthen the participants. Mirasol is the new Chalice and is young and inexperienced. She is a beekeeper and harvests honey from her fantastical bees. Mirasol is a honey Chalice - which is unusual.

The Master whom Mirasol serves is unusual as well. When he was younger, he was sent to the Elemental Priesthood of Fire by his older (and possibly jealous) brother (the then-Master). The brother was a bad Master and he and his Chalice died in terrible circumstances, leaving no heir other than the young man at the Elemental Priesthood of Fire. At the Priesthood, the Master has been studying the ways of fire. And in his studies, he has been transformed. He is no longer entirely human, but not yet entirely a Priest of Fire. He is caught between the two worlds, but he is now Master of Willowlands and must try to bind his demesne together.

But the book is about more than just those bare facts. The book is about ownership and the ties that bind landowners to their land. It is about bees, and honey. It is about learning, and growing. It is about sacrifice. It is about love.

This is a lovely little gem of a book that will leave you wanting more - another glimpse into the lives of other Chalices and other Masters in other demesnes. It doesn't succumb to the usual Celtic-Middle Earth cliches that so much fantasy writing falls into. It is its own unique creation. It is a beautiful, lovely story by a master of fantasy fiction.

For those of you wanting information about real bees, as opposed to Mirasol's fictional and fantastical bees, check out this great bee blog for more information: http://www.edmontonsnewbees.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Marple Two

One more Christie post and then I'll quit, honest! That will be helped by a large number of books that came in to the library this week that I have to go pick up tomorrow. There are a lot of exciting things coming up, so stay tuned!

But for now, we turn back to everyone's favourite old maid detective - Miss Marple, and the second collection of her works: Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II.


Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II
Again, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the organization of these novels, so, again, I just read them in the order presented.

A Caribbean Mystery
This first mystery takes Miss Marple away from her usual milieu of a quiet country village, and puts her down at a resort hotel on a lovely Caribbean island. At first, Miss Marple is disoriented by the steel drum band, endless supply of paw-paw at breakfast, softly swaying palm trees, and lovely sand beaches. However, she soon gets her feet and spots some village parallels - just in time to help in a murder investigation!

Despite the rather exotic setting (for a Miss Marple mystery - unlike Poirot, Marple is not a world traveler and her mysteries usually stay firmly on English soil), this is a usual Miss Marple story with the usual village parallels. The murder is not suspected to be murder first, so Miss Marple and her ally (the extremely old, extremely ugly, and extremely rich Mr. Rafiel) must do some creative digging to uncover a murderer. This is a good Christie story, and almost wants to make you take a vacation. (Although if I arrived at any resort that had Marple or Poirot as a guest, I would be checking out the next day!)

A Pocket Full of Rye
Just as Poirot had a number of mysteries which centred around a nursery rhyme that helped to solve the case, so here does Miss Marple. In this case, the nursery rhyme is as follows:

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey,
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When there came a little dickey bird and nipped off her nose.

The murderer is, shall we say, inspired by this poem and it provides a few important clues to Miss Marple and the police detective.

Miss Marple has a personal interest in this murder, as one of those murdered was a little servant girl who trained at her house. (Oh, to have servants - it would be lovely!) This personal interest, along with the cast of characters and clues provided in the poem, leads to a satisfying and interesting Christie mystery.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
For this mystery, we are back in Miss Marple's village. Hollywood has intruded into the quiet life of St. Mary Mead. Miss Marple's dear friend, Mrs. Bantry (now widowed) has sold her great estate and it has been bought by the famous Hollywood film star Marina Gregg and her devoted director husband, Jason Rudd. There is much surprise and consternation, however, when a local woman is murdered at a housewarming gala held by Marina and Jason. Marina is sure that the poisoned drink was meant for her.

Despite the Hollywood intrusion, Miss Marple is still able to find some village parallels and help the police solve the mystery. Again, poetry intrudes here too, but instead of a nursery rhyme, it is Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" that provides an interesting thematic background that Christie weaves throughout the novel. This is an excellent Christie with an interesting and challenging puzzle that Miss Marple successfully solves at the end. I will say that the astute reader should be able to gather enough clues to figure out the mystery before the end - but it is still a satisfying puzzle nonetheless.

They Do It With Mirrors
Miss Marple visits an old schoolfriend in this novel and ends up having to assist the police in a murder investigation. Miss Marple goes to visit her old friend Carrie Louise at her sister Ruth's insistence. Ruth has a feeling that something is wrong with her sister, and sends Miss Marple there to try and find out what that is.

Carrie Louise lives in the country mansion of Stonygates with her third husband, Louis Serrocold. A portion of Stoneygates has been turned into a sort of rehabilitation facility for juvenile delinquents. The rest of the house holds Carrie Louise, Louis and other various family members and employees, including: Carrie Louise's daughter Mildred Strete; Carrie Louise's granddaughter Gina; Gina's husband Wally; Carrie Louise's stepsons Alex and Stephan Restarick (from marriage #2); Carrie Louise's secretary Juliet Belliver; and Louis' secretary Edgar Lawson. This is the pool of suspects that Miss Marple has to choose from when Carrie Louise's other stepson Christian Gulbrandsen (from marriage #1) visits with an important message - a message that leads to his murder.

This is another good Christie with a good puzzle. One little problem - do not try and make sense of the chronology of the marriages and timelines for adopting children and having children and divorces and all that. It will not make sense! Some of these timeline problems could have been avoided by making Gina Carrie Louise's daughter instead of granddaughter. The timeline problems don't affect the mystery or the solution at all, so they are not fatal to the book. Just don't actually try to figure out the chronology of Carrie Louise's life, because the dates will not add up!

Other than the chronology issues, this is a good Christie and is quite enjoyable. The characters are an interesting and diverse group of people, and the theme of artifice - magic, theatre, conjuring tricks, runs throughout the novel. A good puzzle with a satisfying conclusion.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Marple One

In a switch from my usual Christie habits, I've decided to switch over to Marple, instead of Poirot and reread my Marple omnibus editions instead of my Poirot editions (barring some selected novels from my Poirot editions that are my favourites).

I thought I had all the Marples in my omnibus editions, but it turns out that Miss Marple is in 12 novels, not 8. I have 2 omnibus editions with 4 novels each, so I am missing 4 novels! Hopefully a Marple III has been published - but a trip to the library should suffice, for now.

Miss Marple Omnibus Volume I
It should be noted that the novels in this series are not in any type of chronological order at all. I'm not really sure the reason for the grouping of the novels, but I just read them in the order presented.

The Body in the Library
The story begins, obviously, with a body in the library. But not just a body - that of a platinum blonde, dressed in fantastic evening dress, and strangled. And not just a library, but the very proper English country village library of Colonel and Mrs. Bantry. The Bantrys do not know the poor murder victim, but that doesn't stop rumours about the Colonel spreading through the village like wild-fire. Fortunately for Colonel Bantry, Mrs. Bantry is good friends with that most unlikely sleuth, Miss Jane Marple. The police soon connect the body with a missing dancer at a hotel in the next county, and Miss Marple must investigate an interesting family at the hotel that was connected with the dancer, as well as unravelling the mystery of a missing Girl Guide.

This is an entertaining and interesting Miss Marple. I really enjoy Miss Marple's village parallels and how they help her solve the most convoluted of crimes. Miss Marple's mysteries are also enjoyable in that they show the reader a slice of English country village society that very likely does not exist anymore. The books are perfect snapshots of their time.

The Moving Finger
The narrator in this entertaining and original Miss Marple is one Jerry, a young airplane pilot who has been invalided out of the war. He and his sister, the lovely Joanna, rent a house in the quiet village of Lymstock in order to help Jerry recuperate from his crash. However, everything is not as it seems - nasty anonymous letters are going around the village. Soon enough, one of the letters strikes home, and the local solicitor's wife kills herself. But was it suicide, or murder? Jerry and Joanna investigate the village inhabitants to find out who is the mysterious murderer.

This book is narrated in the first person by Jerry and has a breezy, energetic tone. I enjoyed meeting all the different characters of the book through his eyes. And there are some interesting characters - the doctor, Owen Griffith; his sister Aimee Griffith; the sweet spinster Miss Emily Barton; the solicitor's stepdaughter, the puppy-like Megan; and the unique vicar's wife, Mrs. Dane Calthorp.

Where, you may ask, is Miss Marple? Fortunately for the novel, Miss Marple is a friend of Mrs. Dane Calthorp's. Miss Marple arrives for a stay with the vicar's wife in Chapter 10 and helps Jerry and the police solve the mystery. Despite not being present in the village all along, Miss Marple is still able to solve the mystery and unravel the clues at the end for the audience.

A Murder is Announced
This is a very excellent Miss Marple. The residents of the village of Chipping Cleghorn are intrigued by a notice in the daily village paper announcing a Murder at Miss Blacklock's that evening. The curious villagers show up at Miss Blacklock's house at the appointed time to visit with Miss Blacklock and her various assorted lodgers. The game seems to be proceeding well when a young man bursts in. The lights go out and the mysterious visitor tells everyone to "Stick 'em up!". There are oohs and aahs from the delighted guests, which turn quickly to gasps of dismay when a revolver is fired. The lights go on to show Miss Blacklock bleeding from a wound in her in ear and the young criminal lying dead on the floor. Who killed him? Who wants to kill Miss Blacklock? Miss Marple must unravel the clues of an extremely ingenious Christie puzzle.

This is an excellent Christie book. There are clues scattered throughout the book, so a second-time reader can see some of the pointers that Christie left for the reader to attempt to figure it out. That is one of the things I enjoy about Christie - she doesn't hide everything from the reader - she gives the reader a fair chance of figuring out the puzzle. I, however, prefer to leave the detecting to the experts (Poirot, Marple) and just enjoy the unraveling in the final chapter, sometimes with a flip back through the book to see the clues I missed.

4.50 From Paddington
This book, as with many Christie books, begins with a murder. However, the murder occurs on a train - the only witness an elderly woman in the carriage of another train running parallel to the first train. (Confusing? Perhaps a bit - don't worry, I won't be asking any questions about "If Train A leaves the station at 8:15 and is traveling at 25 miles per hour....").

The police don't believe her - fortunately, however, the woman is friends with the remarkable Miss Marple. Miss Marple believes her friend, and after a few train journeys and the judicious study of maps, finds the spot on the line where the body would have been dumped from the train. Unable to put herself right on the spot, she hires the indomitable Lucy Eyelsbarrow to work as a housekeeper at the house in question while sleuthing for a body. Lucy finds herself in the Crackenthorpe house. Sure enough - Lucy finds the body of a woman. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why was she murdered? Do any of the Crackenthorpes have anything to do with the murder? Fortunately Miss Marple is staying nearby and helps Lucy, and the police, solve the mystery.

While the mystery is interesting and the set-up to catch the murder well-written, the best part of the novel is the unique and interesting characters created by Christie. The Crackenthorpe family is presided over by a miserly old man who despises his sons: artist Cedric, shady Alfred, stuffy Harold, and tolerates his caretaker daughter, Emma. Other visitors include Emma's brother-in-law Bryan (husband of her dead sister Edith), Bryan's son Alexander and his friend James. Nearly all of the men in the novel make passes at Lucy - Christie seems to have been an inveterate match-maker in her novels. However, Christie leaves one mystery for the readers here - who will Lucy choose? My pick is Bryan! This is an entertaining and interesting Christie and a good Miss Marple.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Thirties and Forties

In addition to the omnibus books based upon the lives of Christie's characters, there is also an omnibus collection which gathers together novels by publication date, and bring together various different Christie characters instead of the old stand-bys, Poirot and Marple. I recently read two of the omnibus editions: 1930's Omnibus and 1940's Omnibus.

1930's Omnibus
This Omnibus features 4 Christie novels published between 1931 and 1939 and includes the terrifically scary and suspenseful And Then There Were None. It should be noted that the order of titles on the cover of the book is not actually the order of novels within the book.

The Sittaford Mystery
This mystery takes place in the remote village of Sittaford on the edge of Dartmoor; however, there are no giant glowing hounds in this story! (Go read Sherlock Holmes if you don't get that reference.) Sittaford is a tiny village consisting of one great manor house (Sittaford House, obviously) and several small cottages. Due to its extreme isolation, it is almost entirely cut off if there has been a heavy snowstorm, as is happening when the novel begins.

Major Burnaby lives in one of the small cottages near Sittaford House, which is owned by Burnaby's friend Captain Trevelyan. However, being inordinately fond of money, Trevelyan has chosen to let his house and move into the nearby town of Exhampton, some six miles away from Sittaford. The house was let to two mysterious colonials: Mrs. Willet and her daughter Violet Willet. It is at the Willet's new abode that the mystery begins.

Major Burnaby, the Willets, and a few other neighbours have gathered for an afternoon tea. After tea, the talk turns to games, and the party decide to participate in the spooky thrills of table-turning. (I'm unclear on exactly what this is, but the concept is similar to a Ouija board.) After various nonsensical messages, the table gets serious and spells out that Trevelyan is dead, and has been murdered! Despite the thick snow hampering his movements, Major Burnaby insists on hiking to Exhampton where, to his great dismay, he finds Captain Trevelyan dead.

Despite Christie's extensive set-up and introduction of various village characters, the main characters in the novel are 3 parties that come in almost after the fact: Captain Trevelyan's nephew and chief suspect in his murder, James Pearson; the intrepid reporter and amateur sleuth, Charles Enderby; and James's fiance, the lovely, practical, and shrewd, Emily Trefusis. Charles and Emily make a good team as they travel between Sittaford and Exhampton working to solve the mystery. One assumes that Christie is, (as usual - she was a great fictional matchmaker), setting up Charles and Emily to get together at the end, but Emily's devotion to her fiance never wavers. That said, James is not a great character - no backbone and not, apparently, particularly attractive (one cannot really tell from the story), so the reader wonders a) what Emily saw in him to get together with him in the first place, and b) why won't she pick the more active and energetic Charles?

Besides all of that, there is a clever and intriguing mystery going on - not just the murder, but about a number of other characters in the small village of Sittaford. It is a good read - especially for a nice snow day.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
The two sleuths in this adventure are the curate's son, Bobby Jones, and his childhood friend, Lady Frances Derwent (Frankie). While Bobby comes across as a right young idiot, I enjoyed reading about the aristocracy from Christie's point of view and reading about the class distinctions that still informed British society in the 1930's. It's amazing how much a girl could get away with if she's an Earl's daughter!

The mystery here is sort of sprung about Bobby and Frankie. Bobby is golfing one day when he finds a man who seems to have fallen off the golf course onto the cliffs below. While Bobby's friend is going to get help, Bobby stays with the body and hears the man's final words "Why didn't they ask Evans?" and sees a photo of a beautiful woman in the man's pocket. As Bobby is waiting, he recalls that he was supposed to play the organ in his father's service that evening. Fortunately for Bobby, a stranger comes along and says he'll wait with the body. Bobby departs with relief. Some time later, Bobby sees a newspaper reproduction of the photo in the dead man's pocket, and realizes it's not the same photo as he had seen. Bobby and Frankie are then thrust into a mystery complete with murder attempts, drug-taking, and kidnapping!

This is a light-hearted and enjoyable mystery. While the subject matter is fairly dark, the light-hearted natures of the two sleuths, Bobby and Frankie, keep the novel on the lighter side. I like Frankie's shrewd and "hard-boiled" persona, but am not fond of Bobby's careless, happy-go-lucky personality. Still, a good novel with a solid mystery core.

Murder is Easy
Luke Fitzwilliam, ex-colonial policeman, has returned to England after a number of years abroad. On the train on his way to London he meets an old lady who tells him about a number of mysterious deaths that have happened in her village lately. She believes that, while all of these deaths have been attributed to natural causes, the deaths are, in fact, murders and she tells him who will be murdered next. She is going to London to inform Scotland Yard that something must be done. They part ways in London and the next day Luke reads in the paper that sadly the woman was run over on her way to Scotland Yard. Even more mysteriously, a week later Luke reads an obituary of the next person the lady said would be killed. Luke's policeman instincts are activated and he goes at once to the little village of Wychwood-under-Ashe to stay with his friend's cousin Bridget, and her fiance, the odious Lord Whitfield.

Luke pretends to be a writer researching a book on local myths and customs while he is trying to figure out who is the murderer and who will be murdered next. He also is falling in love with Bridget, who seems to be falling for him too. Bridget and Luke work together to discover the murderer in a lovely little village where things aren't as they seem.

I really enjoyed this mystery. It is very suspenseful, with suggestions of the paranormal, but not enough that it distracts from the actual mystery and the actual murderer. There was also an excellent twist at the end that I didn't see coming at all. I quite enjoyed this one.

And Then There Were None
This is the novel which establishes Christie as Queen of the suspenseful mystery. 10 people are trapped on an island as houseguests in a mysterious mansion with a seemingly absent host. In quick succession, two guests are murdered. Is there someone on the island? Or is the murder one of their own? Curiously, the murders seem to be following the pattern in a poem called "10 Little Soldiers". Who will die next?

Do not read this book at night if you want to sleep! I read it in the afternoon while I was all alone in the house and that was scary enough! (It was broad daylight!) This is an excellent book and an excellent mystery. Nothing supernatural about it - the mystery can, and is, explained at the end and the solution is perfectly plausible. But the sense and feeling of tension and suspense that runs through the book is masterfully done. I don't want to say too much about it because it truly has to be read to be appreciated. (Although, in the interests of fairness, I should point out that my husband read it recently [his first Christie ever!] and he said it wasn't scary [I beg to disagree], but that it was suspenseful. He doesn't really like Christie's writing style and thought it was okay.)

1940's Omnibus
This Omnibus features four stories published between 1941 and 1949. Only one of them really has anything to do with the war specifically, although the characters and settings do reflect the extreme changes that the war brought to Britain.

N or M?
Ah, the infamous Tommy and Tuppence. Despite my general dislike of these characters, I read the first novel anyway, and thought it was alright. I still prefer Poirot and Marple, but T&T weren't bad this time out.

Tommy and Tuppence are Christie's "spy" couple. Their first book was set in the 1920's, with Tommy and Tuppence as Bright Young Things with a taste for mystery. I prefer Christie's English society mysteries as opposed to when she mixes in international spy thriller plots, mostly because I don't think she does the spy thriller genre all that well. It's still good reading, but there are probably other authors I would turn to if I wanted spy thrillers.

At any rate, this book is set in World War Two, so Tommy and Tuppence are quite a bit older and have children of their own. They are still eager to help out the war effort and so are recruited to go undercover as Mr. Meadowes (Tommy) and Mrs. Blenkensop (Tuppence). (And, more accurately, Tommy was recruited and Tuppence recruited herself to go undercover.) There are worries about a giant "Fifth Column" of German spies who have infiltrated Britain in a vast undercover network that will assist the German army with acts of strategic sabotage when the German invasion and occupation of England occurs. Tommy and Tuppence have to find the leaders of the spy ring operating in their area so England can take down the network.

Now, I've been reading a lot about spies in this era recently, and the fear of a giant underground network of German spies was a common belief in England at the time. However, recent research has demonstrated that that fear was groundless. Germany did not have a very well organized spy network and the British secret agents were good at finding and turning German spies. This knowledge probably robbed the book of any urgency it had, as I knew that there was no "Fifth Column" of German undercover agents. But for the time, it would have been very topical. And Tommy and Tuppence figured out all of the clues and solved the mystery of the spy leaders. Not a bad little novel, but I have other Christies I like better.

Towards Zero
This novel features the semi-recurring character of Superintendent Battle, the policeman whose wooden exterior conceals a bright and active mind. Battle appears in the Poirot novels and some of his own (including Murder is Easy, above). He does not appear in any of the Marple stories.

Nevile Strange is a perfect Englishman - wealthy, sporting, and handsome. He is a golf and tennis star, has a lot of money, and a new and beautiful wife, Kay. He divorced his previous wife Audrey in order to marry Kay. Nevile feels bad at this divorce and wants Kay and Audrey to be friends. To that end, he manages to arrange it so that Nevile, Kay, and Audrey are all visiting Nevile's relation Lady Tressilian at her coastal mansion during the same week of September. Rounding out the cast of characters are Audrey's childhood friend Tom Royde (back from the Empire), Lady Tressilian's companion Mary Aldin, and Kay's young follower Ted Latimer. These houseguests become suspects when Lady Tressilian is found murdered. Superintendent Battle must put together the clues, assisted by the mysterious Angus MacWhirter, to catch a killer.

This is one of my favourite Christies that I had forgotten about and hadn't read in awhile. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoyed it. I really like the character of Battle and he always does an excellent job of solving mysteries, either with Poirot or on his own. This is a terrific mystery story with a great puzzle to solve. The characters are enjoyable and interesting. This is an excellent read and a great Christie.

Sparkling Cyanide
Still one of my favourites, but I didn't read it here because I'd read it so recently in my other omnibus collection. But still worth checking out!

Crooked House
As I read this Christie, a sense of horror slowly crept up on me. I had remembered reading a Christie where the murderer was truly unexpected and truly horrific. As I read this book, I slowly came to realize that it was this book that I was actually reading! That sense of remembered horror stayed with me through the book and added an extra level of suspense. It is also interesting to know that this was one of Agatha Christie's favourite books.

Charles Hayward meets the handsome Sophia Leonides abroad during the war. They fall in love, and upon returning to London he looks her up so they can be reunited. Sophia is living in London with her grandfather Aristide Leonides and various members of the family: her grandfather's second wife Brenda, her uncle Roger and his wife Clemency, her mother Magda and father Philip, her brother Eustace and sister Josephine, Eustace's tutor Laurence Brown, and Sophia's great-aunt Edith. This varied cast of characters quickly become suspects when Sophia's beloved grandfather is murdered. Charles must assist his policeman father in the investigation even though he's in love with Sophia.

This is an excellent Christie puzzle. The suspense I had from my previous, half-remembered reading just added to the suspense already in the book. The twist at the end is shocking and totally unexpected. An excellent, suspenseful Christie mystery.