Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Faw...:   Reviewed by Jeanne Winter in Montreal can be very cold and snowy indeed, and Agnes Aubert is desperate to find a new place for her cat...

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Clock Struck Murder: A Lost in Paris Mystery by Betty Webb

 

Betty Webb is a former investigative journalist who turned to mystery writing. She used her journalism background in her first series about Lena Jones, an Arizona private investigator. Each story conveys a great deal of information about a social issue wrapped into a competently plotted and tightly written mystery. Desert Wives, the second in this often dark series, highlighted the ongoing problem of child marriage and polygamy within more extreme sects of the Church of Mormon. Webb’s journalism in this area helped lead to the arrest and conviction of Warren Jeffs in 2011.

Her next series is a light-hearted set of stories about a zookeeper in California and the animals in her care including a red panda, an anteater, and a llama. Despite the fun setting, these books are as soundly plotted as any mystery I have read.

Webb’s newest venture is set in Paris in the 1920s, where artist Zoe Barlow has set up a studio and is settling into the expatriate community. In this second book of the series Paris is especially busy as it is hosting the 1924 Olympics immortalized by the award-winning film Chariots of Fire (1981). Zoe supplements her meager income by hosting weekly poker games, where she outplays nearly everyone who attends. At one of these evenings, someone knocks over a fragile clock and breaks it. He has the grace to offer to replace the piece so Zoe goes back to the flea market where she found it. The sellers offer several attractive clocks, she selects one, and then later decides she wants a second one.

She visits the flea market and finds the seller with the clock she wanted is not working. She walks to the storage area she knows the seller uses, only to discover the body of the seller. The police are busy with the increased crime brought on by all the visitors and the security needed for the dignitaries from participating countries. They don’t intend to give the murder of a nonentity much time. So Zoe undertakes her own investigation, to the dismay of her police officer lover.

Surprisingly the seller had made a number of enemies, most of whom did not appreciate Zoe asking questions. Webb skillfully employs misdirection right up to the last few pages where the killer becomes clear. Great references to the Lost Generation, clothing of the time, and the athletes participating in the games, including Johnny Weismuller, who would later play Tarzan in a series of movies, and surfer Duke Kahanamoku. For fans of historical mysteries.

 

·       Publisher: ‎Poisoned Pen Press (April 9, 2024)

·       Language: English

·       Paperback: ‎320 pages

·       ISBN-10: ‎1728269938

·       ISBN-13: ‎978-1728269931

  

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/3Y2CgQb

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Death at Chelsea by Anna Sayburn Lane

Once again I have the UK Crime Book Club to thank for telling me about an author and a series new to me. Followers of 1920s historical mysteries will be delighted to learn about private investigator Mrs. Iris Jameson and her assistant Marjorie Swallow who have appeared in three books so far by Anna Sayburn Lane. (The UK Crime Book Club is a private group on Facebook. The administrators also issue a monthly email of new releases and organize events in the UK. It is a sure way to expand one’s reading universe.)

The newest title in the series was released in early May. Death at Chelsea (Starling Street, May 2024) finds Mrs. Jameson and Marjorie in the country, where they have been retained by the Halls to identify the person responsible for damaging the rare Himalayan lilies on which the Halls have pinned their financial hopes. Their horticultural firm will be displaying the blue lilies at the upcoming 1923 Chelsea Flower Show, where they hope to win a prize.

The garden show is held by the Royal Horticultural Society each year in the spring. Much more than just a display of flowers and plants, it is the event that kicks off the social season in London. Members of the royal family invariably attend, and crowds of enthusiastic, well-heeled gardeners flock to find new and unusual plants to add to their collections. The show is a gold mine for any business in the plant and flower industry, and the Halls’ fears are well-founded.

The 2024 Chelsea Flower Show just ended, see the prize winners here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/awards

When the lead gardener responsible for the Halls’ exhibit died suddenly just days before opening and a toxicology review found yew in the dead man’s system, the Jameson investigation of sabotage expanded to include murder. Fortunately Inspector Peter Chadwick with whom Iris Jameson had previously worked was assigned to the case.

This story immediately reminded me of the John Putnam Thatcher case involving plant research and development, Green Grow the Dollars (Simon & Schuster, 1982). The amount of money generated by the lawn and garden industry has always been considerable. And where there is money, there is always crime, as Peter King noted in one of his Gourmet Detective mysteries.

I liked this book more than I expected. The character of former drapers’ assistant Marjorie, who provides the narrative, is likable, naïve but learning fast. Her boss Iris Jameson is enigmatic, at least to Marjorie, but perhaps more will be revealed as the series unfolds. The period details include references to the political unrest in England and the great interest in geographical exploration that absorbed Europe in the early 20^th century. The plot resolution relies more on confession by the culprits than sound police work, though.

This story will appeal to a broad sector of mystery readers: private detective fans, those who like original characters, those who favor historical mysteries, especially in the time between the wars such as the Daisy Dalrymple series and the Dandy Gilver books, and to admirers of flower and gardening mysteries. The next book about the Jameson and Swallow duo is scheduled for release in October 2024.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Starling Street Books (May 2, 2024)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎262 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1739514440

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1739514440

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4dNyArn

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Mystic’s Accomplice by Mary Miley

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Mystic’s Accomplice by Mary Miley:   Reviewed by Jeanne Maddy Pastore’s life is upended when her husband, Tommy, is shot and killed.   Tommy worked as a deliveryman for th...

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE LAST DROP OF HEMLOCK BY KATHARINE SCHELLMAN

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE LAST DROP OF HEMLOCK BY KATHARINE SCHELLMAN

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE DEADLY WEED BY CORA HARRISON

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE DEADLY WEED BY CORA HARRISON

Lesa's Book Critiques: MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL BY CORA HARRISON

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Lesa's Book Critiques: A BRAND NEW GIVEAWAY

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Bitter Tea and Mystery: Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Grand Hotel: Vicki Baum: This was an easy book to read and to love, but not easy for me to review. There is so much going on, and so many sad people coming together ...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Murder at the Queen's Old Castle by Cora Harrison

Lesa's Book Critiques: Murder at the Queen's Old Castle by Cora Harrison

Buried Under Books Book Review: The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

Buried Under Books Book Review: The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Folly du Jour by Barbara Cleverly

Folly du Jour by Barbara Cleverly is the 7^th title in the 1920s mystery series featuring Commander Joe Sandilands of Scotland Yard. Sandilands is flying to an Interpol conference in Paris when he’s diverted to assist an English citizen arrested for murder in The City of Lights. He is startled to learn that the accused is Sir George Jardine, his mentor in India diplomacy and spycraft, who was present at a Paris music hall when the victim was killed in a spectacularly bloody fashion.

The hard-nosed and difficult French inspector in charge believes he has found the assassin but Sandilands knows better and manages to remove Jardine from a French prison while he searches for the culprit, enlisting the help of a French detective he worked with on an earlier case.

Despite his lack of knowledge of the terrain, Sandilands manages to carry out a standard English law enforcement investigation, which includes a review of the victim’s unsavory history and the many people who wished him ill. Name-dropping abounds: Sandilands manages to encounter Charles Lindbergh, whose Atlantic crossing ended successfully on the same day as the murder, and Josephine Baker, who was performing at the music hall that night. In addition, Georges Simenon, the creator of Inspector Maigret, makes an appearance as a journalist.

Both the victim and the lady who serves as Jardine’s alibi have ties to Jardine’s long stay in India, which helps invoke the first four books in the series. These first titles are immersed in the India of the British Raj during the early 1920s and have a stronger sense of place than the later entries. The author stated in one of them that she referenced the papers of a relative, who was governor of the Northwest Province of India, now Pakistan, providing authenticity and local color that the following books lack.

Not as vibrant and exotic as the initial adventures of Sandilands but still a solid detective story with an out-of-left-field resolution to the plot. Booklist starred review.

·         Hardcover: 288 pages

·         Publisher: Soho Constable; English Language edition (August 1, 2008)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 156947513X

·         ISBN-13: 978-1569475133

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray:             Reviewed by Christy After battling a sleeping sickness in the Lair of Dreams , the Diviners are back in the third insta...

Lesa's Latest Contest: 1920s Mystery Giveaway

This week, I'm giving away mysteries set in the 1920s - Abir Mukherjee's A
Necessary Evil & Barbara  Cleverly's Fallen Angels. Details on my blog,
https://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com. Entries from the U.S. only,
please.


-- 
Lesa Holstine
lesa.holstine@gmail.com

http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com