BOOK REVIEW: Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Because I’ve read some marvelous historical mysteries recently, I’ve started looking for more. Murder Most Malicious by Alyssa Maxwell follows two sleuths in a post-WWI English manor. The setting attracted me and I was pleased to be approved for this novel by Netgalley.

Lady Phoebe and her lady’s maid Eva are the stars of this fast-moving mystery. Having worked together on homefront projects during the war, and both understanding sacrifice and loss, the two are friends rather than servant and mistress, though Eva shows the requisite reticence to drop all boundaries.

Phoebe’s older sister, Jane, is a beauty whose title, wealth, and good looks attract men in a way that Phoebe can never hope to do. At a family Christmas houseparty, guests have gathered expecting the announcement of an engagement between Jane and the neighboring Lord Henry Allerton. However, Henry is a brute. Jane refuses him. Phoebe overhears a nasty argument.

The next morning is Boxing Day. Eva and a couple of other servants along with a couple of tradesmen in town receive gifts from the manor. In the boxes, each finds a severed finger and a valuable personal item. The fingers and expensive items belong(ed) to Lord Allerton.

Understanding him to be dead, Phoebe and Eva are determined to find the killer, especially after one of the footmen is falsely arrested. (The investigator is incompetent and rude. Fortunately, he has a young Irish assistant who is more open-minded.) They don’t know who can be trusted. Phoebe is concerned that her sister may somehow be involved or, at least, she feels she should come clean about the argument. The other houseguests are also suspect.

The plot twists and turns make this an enjoyable read. It isn’t very hard to guess the likely culprit, but the misdirections help keep the outcome in doubt.

Phoebe and Eva are feisty and determined, and put the clues together cleverly. However, they are, for much of the novel, oblivious to personal danger, which makes some of their actions, particularly Phoebe’s, seem unlikely. In addition, the peripheral characters are flat, filling the usual murder mystery roles without standing out. It keeps the interpersonal relationships less interesting than they would be if the people around Phoebe and Eva were more roundly drawn. Still, in order to keep motives murky and suspicion muddled, the reader needs to be distant from the other characters. This looks to be the start of a series, and now that the reader sees who is to be trusted, it’s likely the supporting players will be fleshed out in future books.

BOOK REVIEW: The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer

It was bound to happen sooner or later: a novel by Georgette Heyer disappointed me. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t the delight I’m accustomed to when I pick up one of this author’s novels.

The Corinthian follows the adventures and inadvertent courtship of Sir Richard Wyndham and Penelope (Pen) Creed.

Sir Richard is a Corinthian—in the Regency period this label is given to a gentleman whose main concern is to always be dressed in the most up-to-date, expensive fashion, with cravat intricately tied, hair styled to perfection in a way difficult to mimic, and to be well-built so the fashion suits him (generally requiring some sort of manly exercise, like boxing in the correct club, while pretending no actual effort.) In fact, the effort to appear effortless is important. He has to properly accessorize (ie. a quizzing glass that he uses to great effect). He must have a wonderful hand with horses, owning the best, and winning at all races he undertakes in his fashionable conveyance. And he must gamble in the best clubs, and win or lose great sums with nonchalance. He is in society, but bored by it. Everything except playing the part bores him. He is a cynic and master of the witty set down.

Richard is all of this and much admired for it. (And this was one of my difficulties with the story. Richard seemed shallow and uninteresting.) However, he is approaching thirty and is not married. He’s never even shown any interest in a female, and his sister and mother are getting impatient. Of course, he needs to settle down and beget an heir. It’s time for him to propose to Melissa Brandon, a pretty woman with the proper family name, who has been waiting for him for years. Their families have a long acquaintance and it’s been more or less accepted that they will eventually marry. Richard is the only one unaware of how settled the issue seems to be.

Richard is anti-marriage because he believes all females of his acquaintance are interested in his money and name, not in him. Still, he dutifully pays a call on Melissa (whose family is deep in arrears with an alcoholic father and two wastrel brothers) only to be informed, by her, that his money is the only thing she cares about. It’s her responsibility to provide for her family. He can continue to live as he does, so long as she gets a hold of his purse.

He does not offer for her, but plods away in a funk and gets drunk.

Fortunately, as he is stumbling home late at night from his club, he comes across a youth escaping from a high window of a home. Richard helps the youth and discovers a girl in boy’s clothes. This is Pen Creed. She is a wealthy heiress, just turned seventeen, who is being bullied into marrying her cousin. She doesn’t like the cousin and is far too independent-minded to be bullied by her aunt. So, she is running away to her childhood home to reconnect with her old friend Piers. Long ago, they said they would marry when the time was right. She hasn’t seen him or heard from him in five years, but she considers the time to now be right.

Aghast, amused, and drunk, Richard decides he must escort her as a protector. They’ll keep Pen dressed up as a boy. Pen has a lively imagination and works up a story of their relationship. And they should travel by public conveyance to throw her aunt off the trail.

Many adventures ensue. The plot involves thievery, trickery, Bow Street runners, a murder, alarmed and misinformed family members—everything is thrown into the mix.

Richard is a complete gentleman the whole time, able to handle anything thrown into their path. Pen is a complete innocent, embroiling them into absurd difficulties by her naive faith in her plans and in Richard. She just doesn’t see bad in the world and has no idea that she has placed herself and Richard in a compromising situation.

The novel should have been more fun than it was. The elements of a typical Heyer novel were all there. Maybe that was the problem: it seemed phoned in. The plot was a little too complicated yet predictable, Richard was a bit too much of a "character"; his personality was swamped by the "Corinthian" role. And Pen was too naive and freshly fun to take seriously. Richard’s patronizing attitude also wore a bit thin.

So, if I had to make a list of Heyer books to read, this would be low on the list, but reading a novel by Heyer is never a bad way to spend the afternoon.

I Love Libraries Reading Challenge 2016: CHALLENGES FOR 2016

My second challenge for the new year is the "I Love Libraries" challenge hosted by Bea's Book Nook, formerly hosted by Book Dragon's Lair.

My local library is a lifeline for me. For research, they are able to get a hold of just about anything. It's a great way to learn how useful a source may be without buying it. (I can buy it later if I need to keep referring to it.) And, since my bookshelves are filled to the brim, I've started making a conscious effort to use my library more for books I read for entertainment as well. This challenge is great for keeping track of how often I use my library.

For this challenge, use your library to check out reading material - books, magazines, any sort of reading material that you are allowed to check out, physical or digital. The challenge runs January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.

The details:

1. Put a sign up post on your blog and link it here. (Bea's Book Nook)
2. If you don't have a blog, make a dedicated goodreads shelf (or LibraryThing), make sure it's public, and link it below. 
3. Any reading material that can be checked out of your library counts - print books, audio books, digital books, magazines, etc. 
4. As part of your sign up post, briefly write why you like using your library - free books, internet access, a quiet place to work, whatever draws you to the library. If you don't have a blog platform, post it in the comments below.
5. Write a review - 2 sentences or an essay, whatever works for you, but there is a minimum of 2 sentences. Not sure what to write? How about something like, "The characters were a delight but the story was slow and confusing. It was disappointing." 
6. There will be a post each month where you can link your reviews. Each linky will run for the calendar year.
7. Pick a level from the list below. You can move up as needed but you can't move down.
8. Books may overlap with other reading challenges.

Levels:

• board book - 3
• picture book - 6
• early reader - 9
• chapter book - 12
• middle grades - 18
• Young adult - 24
• adult - 36
• just insert IV - 50

I'm going with early reader (so I don't go too overboard with challenge commitments.)

Here are the books I've read with links to reviews:

1. Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
2. America in the Gilded Age by Sean Dennis Cashman
3. The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
4. The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor
5. Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America by John C. Waller
6. It Ended Badly. 13 of the Worst Breakups in History by Jennifer Wright
7. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
8. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
9. An Anatomy of Addiction by Howard Markel
10. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
11. Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom
12. A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephen Harrigan
13. The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson
14. quiet neighbors by Catriona McPherson
15. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
16. The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
17. An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor
18. The Infinities by John Banville
19. The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
20. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
21. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
22. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
23. As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber
24. The Gene. An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
25. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

CHALLENGES FOR 2016: E-Book Reading Challenge

It's December: time to wrap up my 2015 challenges and start thinking about 2016. As a sign of how times have changed, this year I'm entering the e-book challenge hosted by Annette's Book Spot. I'm reading more and more on my ipad apps, especially since signing on with Netgalley, and my e-reader is getting as backed up as my real bookshelf.

So here it is:

Time to clean up those e-readers! (sign up page for the 2016 EBook Reading Challenge!)

Challenge Guidelines:

This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2016 – Dec 31, 2016.

Anyone can join, you don’t need to be a blogger. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to sign-up in the comments at Annette's Book Spot. You can post reviews to any book site (i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, etc).

Any genre or length of book counts, as long as it is in ebook format.

You can plan your books in advance or as you read them.

When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the E-Book Reading Challenge.

Sign-ups will be open throughout 2016, so feel free to join at any time during the year.

Levels:

1. Bits – 5 ebooks
2. Bytes – 10 ebooks
3. Megabytes – 25 ebooks
4. Gigabytes – 50 ebooks
5. Terabytes – 75 ebooks
6. Empty the Cloud – 100 ebooks

At the beginning of each month there will be a roundup post for you to add your reviews for that month. The linky will remain open for the remainder of the year, so if you forget, feel free go back and add them when you remember.

I'll be going for the Bytes level, 10 books, and I'll list them here with links to reviews.

1. The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin
2. The Lion and the Cross by Joan Lesley Hamilton
3. The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by C.W. Gortner
4. At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
5. Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham
6. The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
7. Remember the Ladies by Gina L. Mulligan
8. The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church
9. Happy People Read and Drink Coffee by Agnes Martin-Lugand
10. Mr. Eternity by Aaron Their
11. The Spy of Venice by Benet Bandreth
12. Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell
13. The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe
14. The A to Z of You and Me by James Hannah
15. And I Darken by Kiersten White
16. Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
17. The Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan
18. Lions by Bonnie Nadzam
19. A Pressing Engagement by Anna Lee Huber
20. An Untimely Frost by Penny Richards
21. The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders
22. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
23. Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba
24. The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
25. Someone to Love by Mary Balogh
26. Chivalry and the Medieval Past edited by Katie Stevenson and Barbara Gribling
27. Death Comes to the Fair by Catherine Lloyd
28. Victoria The Queen by Julia Baird

BOOK REVIEW: The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

I heard the buzz a few months ago about the newly released (in the U.S.) historical novel The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth and put it in the "must read" category. Having just completed it (explanation to follow) I have to agree with all the superlatives that have been flung at it. This is a truly original and astounding work of art.

The novel, a tale of England in the days of the Norman Conquest, is narrated by Buccmaster of Holland, a small freeholder whose grandiose self-importance is not supported by any actual influence in his tiny hamlet. When the wars start and England is swarmed by Normans, Buccmaster’s world is destroyed. He becomes a guerilla warrior of sorts, the self-proclaimed leader of a reluctant band of men as broken and defeated as he is.

I had anticipated a more inspiring story of resistance against oppression. But Kingsnorth is more inventive than that. He gives us a painful, horrifying story of violence, selfishness, and hopelessness.

Not content with providing a brilliant account of a frustrated and rather depraved anti-hero, an unreliable narrator whose true nature is slowly revealed over the course of the book, Kingsnorth is determined to immerse the reader fully. For that, he needed to use language appropriate to the time. It was not enough to weed out modernisms, because all our language is too modern. He invented an Old English shadow language and put the whole narration in the mouth of the protagonist. This is a difficult book to read, but worth every bit of the effort.

So here’s my confession. The effort was not mine. We read the book as our family read-along choice. At this point in the evolution of our family’s evening reading-together-time, this means that my husband read the book aloud to me and my teenaged son. (The language got a bit uncomfortable, but it isn’t like my son doesn’t hear worse at school.) Hearing the book is a wonderful way to fall into the rhythm of the language. It took a short while for the pronunciation to gel, and for us to grasp the meaning of the unfamiliar or vaguely familiar words, but once accustomed to Buccmaster’s voice, it became easy to slide into this world that was at once surreal and all too real.

For literature lovers, historical fiction and history fans, this book should be on the must-read lists.

　

　

BOOK REVIEW: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Having so enjoyed Henry James’ lengthy novel, The Bostonians, I thought I could easily squeeze in another back-to-the-classics challenge read—James’ The Turn of the Screw, which was my choice for classic novella.

This is a classic ghost story, set up by a narrator who promises an ugly, dreadful tale and has his audience quivering with anticipation. However, it’s more than your typical round-the-campfire scary story. The participant, a governess, is sent to a remote estate to care for two orphaned children by an attractive wealthy man who is their uncle. The uncle’s sole request is that she never bother him with any details. Anxious to earn his approval, she sets out to obey.

The young children are uncannily beautiful and well-behaved, but there is the odd circumstance that the boy has been expelled from school for reasons the headmaster did not make clear. The governess is unable to believe the boy guilty of any wrong-doing, and his goodness is corroborated by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, who has known the children a long while.

Not too much time passes before the governess begins to see apparitions: an evil man and woman who she can describe in such detail that Mrs. Grose recognizes them to be Quint and Miss Jessel, the uncle’s previous valet and the children’s previous governess. Both these people are dead.

While it’s possible (and as been proposed by some literary critics) that the governess is simply insane, there are too many things that point to her credibility as a witness.

She tries to protect the children from these evil influences, but becomes aware that the children are, in some way, in collusion with the ghosts.

Bravely, the governess tries fighting back against the ill-intentioned specters (just what their intentions are is left deliberately ambiguous) but her attempts to win control of the children has disastrous results.

To a modern reader, this book is not as terrifying as it might have once seemed, but it is still eery and full of suspense. I’m not a big fan of horror, but this one, superbly written, is worth the read.

BOOK REVIEW: The Longest Night by Andria Williams

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Two things that require daily maintenance, careful tending, and honest communication are a marriage and a nuclear reactor. In Andria Williams’ beautiful novel, The Longest Night (to be released in January), we see the terrible results of neglecting both.

Set in Idaho Falls in the early 1960's, at the site of the nation’s only fatal nuclear reactor accident, the novel follows specialist Paul Collier and his wife, Nat, as they try to make a life for themselves as a military family. Paul has brought Nat and their two young daughters to this remote town on a two year tour that he hopes will establish his career and stabilize their economic situation. Paul grew up poor and abused, and wants with all his heart to do right by the family he loves. Nat grew up on the San Diego beaches. More of a free spirit, with a loving generous nature, she is stifled by the expectations of proper military wife behavior. She and Paul don’t quite fit in to the culture in Idaho Falls, but they pretend for each other’s sake.

At work, Paul is oppressed by his supervisor, Master Sergeant Richards, a bully and a drunk, who does anything but supervise. When problems arise at the reactor, which they do frequently, Richards wants them quietly taken care of without alerting anyone up the chain of command. They are supposed to cook the logbooks so that it appears everything is fine. This breakdown of procedure and coverups of dangerous equipment malfunctions is horrifyingly realistic.

The book also shows us the voice of Richards’ wife, Jeannie. Outwardly the consummate military wife, Jeannie is a seething ball of resentment. She despises her incompetent, womanizing husband. Still, she defines herself as the perfect example of supportive housewifery. Every detail of her homemaking is a notch above. Jealous of Nat’s "happy" marriage, she keys in on Nat’s awkwardness and capitalizes on it—a grown-up example of a mean girl.

If Paul and Nat were able to talk openly about their insecurities, the cracks in their marriage would not split so wide. If Paul were able to report the problems at the reactor to someone who cared more about safety and responsibility than passing the buck to protect his own flailing career, a fatal nuclear disaster might have been averted.

This is a wonderful portrayal of flawed but mostly sympathetic characters. Sometimes their mistakes are painful to read because you can see the train wreck coming. Yet their justifications as they are struggling to do their best in bad situations are poignant. And when it is too late to sidestep the wreckage, they must live with the consequences of situations they helped to create.