January Books: Mysteries

 Not sure a month ever goes by without me reading at least a mystery or two. Here are the ones I read in January:

I Give It to You by Valerie Martin

I had not heard of this author before coming across this title in the e-book section of the library website. I was intrigued by the blurb:

‘Jan Vidor seems like the ideal houseguest for a long summer holiday in a Tuscan villa. Unobtrusive but not antisocial, the quiet American academic can be relied upon to entertain herself - but her aristocratic hostess Beatrice has made a terrible mistake. An offhand remark about a violent death at Villa Chiara one night during the War piques Jan's writerly interest and sends her digging into the tragic past of the Salviati family.

Does it matter if Jan just fills in the gaps? After all, Beatrice told Jan she could have the story to do as she liked with, she even said 'I give it to you'...

I Give It To You is a riveting novel about who owns a story, whether we have a right to what we inherit and what a gift really means.’

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like it, but decided to give it a try. I was hooked from the beginning. The story weaves its way between Jan’s story, and Beatrice’s (pronounced bee-uh-tree-chay), moving back and forth between the present (Jan and Beatrice) and the past, as we learn about Beatrice’s family history. Both Beatrice and Jan are academics working in the US, so the story moves between there and Italy, with most of it taking place in Italy. 

The book won the Women’s Prize for Fiction. I found it to be a page-turner that addressed interesting issues, although I wasn’t in love with the ending. It was still worth reading in spite of that.

 Testament to Murder by Vivian Conroy

This is book one in a cosy mystery series set in the 1920s. This one took place in France, but the cast of characters was British, with one Usian. I don’t read as many cosy mysteries as I used to, because I am still nor familiar with what’s available here. In the US there was an abundance of stitching mystery series revolving around groups of people who crocheted, knitted, quilted, embroidered, did many or all of these things. There were series revolving around bookshop owners, mystery bookshop owners, tea shop owners, and coffee shop owners. The ones I followed along with were predictable in their publishing dates once a year, so I knew when to look at the library for the next one. These often got slightly stale as the series went on and the mysteries were predictable, but it was still a fun way to spend a couple of hours, reading about how the characters evolved. Now, when these are not so readily available at the library, even when it was open, I have just read the ones that are when I come across them and they seem interesting enough to give them a try. So it was with this one. There are four books in the series and the first two were available in the e-book section of the library website, so I borrowed them. I liked this one a lot, started on number two, and got in the queue for number three. It’s an interesting plot. Malcolm is an older guy who is alone after having his first wife die and his second wife leave him for his former business partner. He has no children. He calls his nephew, a failed artist and writer, his new wife, his second wife, her husband and their son, his former secretary, and a few others to his French estate. There he announces that he is dying and he was going to play a game with them. Every night at midnight, he would make someone else his sole heir. If he died during the day, the person listed would get all his money. But if he died under suspicious circumstances, the heir would automatically fall under suspicion, could be tried and convicted, then hung. Needless to say, this sets off a whole train of events. A retired Scotland Yard inspector happens to own the neighbouring estate, so he is ready when people start dying.

There was one fairly glaring error right at the beginning that I was surprised to see—I’d have thought that an editor would have spotted it. When the nephew and his wife are heading towards the estate, she is dreaming of what she would do with the rich uncle’s money. She thinks that High will no longer have to go begging his father for money every once in a while. This was on page 7 of the e-book. On page 10, we learn that Hugh’s father died when he was 17. Hmmm. In spite of that, it was an enjoyable read and a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Honeymoon With Death by Vivian Conroy

This is the second book in the author’s ‘Murder Will Follow’ series, set in the 1920s and featuring retired Scotland Yard man. Jasper (and his dog, Red). He is only ever called Jasper, so we don’t know whether that’s his first name or his last. In this book, he arrives on a Greek island that is a little bit off the beaten path and finds trouble brewing. Damaris Ramsforth is on her honeymoon. She had never been able to travel before because she barely made ends meet on her salary as a typist, so why does she feel like she has been there before and why is her new husband acting so strangely?

This was a pleasant cosy mystery with an interesting, if somewhat convoluted, plot. The author is an Agatha Christie fan and in her acknowledgements says that she feels that of all the series she writes, this one shows the most evidence of that. 

Under the Guise of Death by Vivian Conroy

This is the third book (of four currently in the series) of the Murder Will Follow series, featuring retired Scotland Yard man Jasper. Each book has a different setting. In this one, it’s Venice, where Jasper is visiting an old friend who is a member of the local police force. There is a big masquerade ball, which Jasper does not really want to attend, but does to be polite to his host. At midnight, when everyone takes off their masks, a woman appears on a balcony, much to the shock of the assembled guests. The woman was one believed to have died in a car crash in London three years earlier following a party much like this one. The woman is even wearing the same costume she wore then. She runs away and some guests give chase. When she is found dead on a bridge, Jasper’s friend brings him along to the crime scene, because Jasper investigated the car crash in London where it was thought this woman died. This personal interest spurs him on to find out what happened then and who killed her now. 

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