December Books: Mystery

 Before I start today's post, I just wanted to mention that on the Glancing Back in Time blog, we have started posting our Alaska stories. Today's post is the first part of the beginning of the story. It will continue from there. And now, onto the books!

Here we are, several days into a new year. We're back in a strict lockdown that may get even more strict and it will last until at least 31 January and possibly longer. I suspect it will be longer. So I am even more happy than usual to be surrounded by books. 

Here are the mysteries I read/listened to in December

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast)

I was so happy when I found out that this was going to be the book Phoebe reads in the podcast. I have skipped a few of the books, but loved several of her choices. 

This is the first Tommy and Tuppence book Christie wrote. It was published in 1922. I had to stop myself from grabbing my e-reader and reading it so I could find out what happens. I read it years ago and had some vague memories of one or two plot points, but mostly I’d forgotten about it. In the podcast, Phoebe reads a chapter each day (two if they’re very short), so it is a little treat each day.

This book begins on the Lusitania, where a man is handing over a packet of papers to a woman passenger, assuming correctly that she has a better chance of survival after the boat starts to sink. The story then moves forward a few years. The war is over. Tommy and Tuppence bump into each other in London. They’ve been friends since childhood and came across on another during the war in a hospital, where Tommy was wounded and Tuppence was a nurse. Both of them are now having trouble finding work and they have very little money, so they decide to put an ad in a newspaper offering to undertake tasks for people. They get drawn into a task that is much bigger than they expected when they are asked to help find those papers. And the adventure begins.

The Veiled One by Ruth Rendell

Before I picked this book up, I had planned to start a sprawling Victorian novel with a few dozen characters and a multi-stranded storyline. But I had a slight headache and was feeling tired, so wasn’t really following along. I wanted to read, but it wasn’t the right time for that particular book, so I grabbed this one, purchased at a charity shop for exactly such moments, and started. It was a good enough read. 

It’s an Inspector Wexford novel and it begins with him in a shopping centre where he is buying a gift for his wife’s birthday. On the wy to his car, he passed what he thinks is a pile of rags in the subterranean parking area. Later, when he is called to the scene of a crime, he learns that underneath the brown curtain was the body of a middle-aged woman. He and his sidekick, Mike Burden, set out to answer the questions. Who is she? Why was she killed? Who killed her?

When in Rome by Ngaio Marsh

I was feeling like a mystery, so I looked up the list of Marsh’s books so I could see where I was in the Roderick Alleyn series. I discovered that this book was next and after that came a Christmas book, so I decided to read both for the season that’s in it. As always, I enjoyed them. In this book, Alleyn is in Rome trying to track down some drug dealers. He books himself into a tour group and soon he is dealing with much more than drug dealers.

Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh

In this book, set at Christmastime, Roderick Alleyn’s wife, Agatha Troy Alleyn, known as Troy, is at a country house where she is painting a portrait of the owner. Alleyn is in Australia when the book begins, but his case is due to be wrapped up shortly after Christmas, so Troy is there among strangers. More people show up for the holiday celebration and an elaborate party is planned for local people from the neighbouring workhouse and their children. When the servant of one of the guests goes missing, things get tense. When Alleyn returns and phones Troy, he is convinced to join the group and then to take over the case. He is not keen on this, but in typical country house mystery fashion, the local police are overwhelmed with cases so he is ordered to take over. 

Happy 2021 and stay safe! 😷

 

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