November Books: Mysteries

 I'm not sure I ever have a long stretch of time without reading a mystery. Here are the ones I read last month.

Put on by Cunning

An Unkindness of Ravens both by Ruth Rendell

I picked up this book in a charity shop a few years ago. It’s two of Rendell’s novels in one paperback, so it was compact and easily packed and hauled around as we moved. Whenever we were packing, I would choose bigger books to read so I wouldn’t have to pack and carry them, so I never got to this one. However, during these pandemic times, when the library has been closed, we bought some chunky classics and I had to rearrange the books that were already here to be able to find places for the new ones. As I stuck my smaller paperbacks here and there, I stuffed all of the available spaces and had no place to put this one, so I put it on the floor next to a table with a shelf underneath it. This is a handy table and I have fit a bunch of books inside. I’d forgotten about this book until I went to get something and saw it there on the floor. I decided I might as well read it and put it in the donation pile. We have several donation piles at this point and hopefully one day the charity shops will open once again and we’ll be able to donate them. It was open for a brief time and Bill was able to drop off a couple of bags full during that time. The woman said they weren’t actually taking books at that time, due to limitations of space, but because he had walked with them, she told him to go ahead and leave them. There is no wee free library here in town, which is kind of a shame.

In any case, I liked the first book better than the second. I was reading it in the wee hours one night and had some kind of theory about how things would unfold. By the time I got up the next morning forgotten my theory and when I finished the book that afternoon, I knew that whatever my theory was, it was wrong! It was a twisty sort of ending.

The second book was not as good. It was predictable and I could see what was coming. 

A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh

I was reading a history book, but one night was more in the mod for some fiction, so I grabbed the e-reader and went to Ngaio Marsh, opening this, the 25th book in her Roderick Alleyn series. It was published in 1968, so is beyond the Golden Age when the first ones were published.

In this book, Alleyn is giving a lecture to some trainee police and recounting a case he solved. Eac of the 10 chapters begins with his addressing the trainees and sometimes their responses, but then moves back in time to the events he is describing. Since the case evolved on a river cruise that his wife, Agatha Troy took on the spur of the moment while he was on a case in the US, these events were described to him in letters she sent at first. Agatha Troy is a renowned artist and the case involved art, murder, and art forgery. 

I enjoy these books and only have a few left to read before I will have read them all. This one was different than earlier books, both in the structure and as far as the vibe goes. 

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie

This is a collection of short stories that were preciously published elsewhere complied into this new volume. The introduction is an excerpt from Christie’s autobiography about her memories of Christmases at a friend’s home. All of the stories are set in winter and some at Christmastime. There are stories featuring Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Mr Parker Pyne, and Mr Quin. There are also one or two that have none of her recurring characters. I had read all of these stories before at one time or another, but I enjoyed the book anyway. It was a fun seasonal read.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast)

I read about this podcast months ago when it was new. At the time, Phoebe was reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. I went to the beginning and caught up. I continued listening when she moved on to Hound of the Baskervilles. I started listening to The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, but it was tedious, so I stopped listening. Now I know I don’t like Wilkie Collins! I went back to the podcast when she started Murder on the Links, another Agatha Christie and continued listening to The Leavenworth case by Anna Katherine Green. I got partway through Dracula, but didn’t like it and I turned away from Jane Eyre very quickly. This came next and it was good. All the stories but one were broken up into two episodes of about 1/2 hour each. I think there was one story that was one 30-minute-ish episode. Really like this podcast. Even when I end up disliking a book, it serves a purpose. I removed some books that I had on my e-reader for ‘some day’ because I know now not to waste my time. The stories in this book are told by Dr Watson later in his friendship with Holmes. Dr Watson is married in this book and comes to visit Holmes in Baker St now and then—always just in time to assist with a new case. 

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