1. The school year goes into full swing and I get really busy.

2. I still read some books, but I don’t have the time to review them, so I put them on my nightstand and pick up the next book. (Well, not the library books, but you know what I mean.)

3. I take pictures of the books and create drafts with the titles/pictures. If I’m smart, I include a bulleted list of things to mention while the book is still fresh. If not, I will really need to wing it later on.

4. The growing pile makes me feel guilty, so I don’t really start any new books because I have so many others to write about still.

5. I open up a draft and stare at it, and maybe type a sentence or two, and stare some more. By this point I have to flip through the book again to get the summary right because it’s been so long. After a few more repetitions of this the review might eventually get written.

6. Once I’m about halfway caught up on the backlog, I let myself start a new book. This often means the other half of drafts will continue to languish. (I have reviews from two years ago still sitting unfinished.)

Right now I’m somewhere in between steps 5 and 6, which means you’re going to get several new posts over the next few days, so that I can actually read a book again instead of limiting myself to online fiction websites (which are good, and I like supporting unpublished writers and indulging the occasional fanfiction whim, but its just not the same).

I ask myself once in a while why I do this. Maybe book blogging was a phase in my life and I’m nearing the end of it (the writing part, not the reading). Sometimes I just want to read a mystery, think that it was pretty good, and move onto the next book. There is a part of me, however, that really wants to stick this out (I’m coming up on three years of blogging). I think it helps my critical reading skills, and I definitely know it helps my writing skills. Ever since I stopped writing essays for school on a regular basis I find myself working harder to present my thoughts in a coherent, orderly written sequence. I know, I sound like the typical math nerd.

Even more, as litlove recently wrote about, I like having a record of my thoughts on what I’ve read, mostly for myself but also for others. I do go back and visit some of my older posts, and it’s like a mini reread; I find that I remember better the books I write about. In addition, sometimes I read older or obscure books that don’t really get much mention on the Internet other than sales pages. Maybe someone else interested in Howard McGrath or Louise Platt Hauck would be able to learn more about their books by reading my reviews.

Again, I can’t make promises that my posts will occur regularly rather than in fits and spurts, but I want to keep trying. And if you have a blog that I’ve visited in the past but don’t comment on much anymore, I am still reading! I usually go through my Google Reader on my lunch break, and if I want to comment I have to try to remember to go back and do so that night.

The sky was black velvet, obscured by the veil of cloud drawing slowly across from the White Mountains. Later, perhaps, it would be thick with stars, but now it was black, black and comforting for the hunted. The moonspinners had done their work.

I’m not sure why, but lately I’ve been drawn to mystery and suspense rather than regular fiction. Perhaps it’s more escapist, or perhaps it holds my attention better when I have twenty other things on my mind at the same time. Mary Stewart fit the bill perfectly; The Moonspinners was one of the first books of hers that I read, and the later ones I’ve read more recently seem a bit more laid back.

Nicola Ferris, a young secretary at the British Embassy in Greece, is looking forward to joining her cousin Frances for a quiet Easter vacation on Crete. Frances is an avid naturalist and the secluded town of Agios Georgios is perfect, with its location in the foothills of the White Mountains. Nicola has also managed to secure reservations at the small hotel before it opens, since the owner is a wealthy native Cretan recently returned home to help out his sister Sophia.

Thanks to a lift from friends Nicola arrives a day before she is expected, and decides to take a detour up a mountain trail before heading into town. She travels farther than she intends on a search for the perfect picnic spot and stumbles across an abandoned shepherd’s hut. The discovery seems innocuous until she is confronted by a large Greek man with a knife who takes her inside.

The Greek, Lambis, is actually caring for a British man, Mark Langley, who is recovering from a gun wound. Lambis had piloted the caique bringing Mark and his brother Colin to hike and sightsee around the mountains. On the first night, however, the brothers accidentally witnessed a murder. The murderer then shot at Mark, and when Lambis sound and revived him later, Colin was gone. Since ties run deep in Agios Georgios, the two men must remain on the mountainside until Mark’s wound heals a bit and then secretly search for Colin, while avoiding a murderer who hopes to leave no witnesses. Meanwhile Nicola must return to the village to meet her cousin. Her conscience won’t let her turn a blind eye, so she feels around for information without knowing whom to trust, and and who might instead be involved in the affair.

The book was originally published in 1962, but Nicola is a smart and confident heroine. She traipses the mountainside in a dress, smokes cigarettes, and shares a blanket overnight with an injured stranger. She loves working in a foreign country, uses her fluency in Greek to her advantage, and is willing to take plenty of risks. I wonder sometimes how I would fare in situations like this, and right now my answer is not nearly as well as she did!

On this stretch of the hill there were no trees, other than an occasional thin poplar with bone-white boughs. Thistles grew in the cracks of the rock, and everywhere over the dry dust danced tiny yellow flowers, on threadlike stalks that let them flicker in the breeze two inches above the ground. They were lovely little things, a million motes of gold dancing in a dusty beam, but I trudged over them almost without seeing them. The joy had gone: there was nothing in my world now but the stony track, and the job it was taking me to do.

One of my favorite elements of Mary Stewart’s best suspense books is the exotic locale she she so vividly describes. I could see in my mind the wild mountainsides of Crete, the fields and streams and tiny flowers. It’s like a mini mental vacation! The unfamiliarity of the surrounding also exacerbates both Nicola’s perception of events and the reader’s growing interest; there is nothing familiar to fall back on. The most beckoning trail could lead the danger, and the most unassuming building could house a great secret.

Even though I had read this before, I recalled only the basic framework of the plot and still couldn’t quite figure out who to trust. I even mostly fell for an incorrect conclusion Nicola draws at one point. I guess this means I can go back and reread her other books as well!

While browsing for series books at the latest book sale I found a couple old favorites that had me secretly jumping for joy. Two of the Miss Bianca books by Margery Sharp immediately found their way into my bag. I don’t love these as much as the movies because Miss Bianca is  more stand-offish and Bernard more subservient, but they are wonderful nonetheless. Neither is the one I most vividly remember, which features some somewhat creepy wax dolls.

After rereading The Doll’s House over the summer I remembered a book with a treasure in a doll house that I couldn’t for the life of me figure out the title of. As soon as I picked up When the Dolls Woke, by Marjorie Filley Stover, I knew I had found it. The prequel, Midnight in the Dollhouse, was there as well.  I flipped through and everything was as I remembered, including the parchment over the fireplace and the exotic wooden doll Martinique (though she is not mean like I had thought). They are a bit similar to Rumer Godden’s books, which must be why I thought they were by her.

In the same box as those two was a book called Jamie and the Mystery Quilt, by Vicki Berger Erwin. I first checked this our of the local library when I was about eight, and read it several times more in the next few years, though if you had asked me now about the plot I would have been stumped. I couldn’t resist reading it as soon as I got home. My library’s copy had been missing some pages, so this was actually my first time reading it in its entirety.

Jamie absolutely loves the old house that has been passed down for generations in her father’s family. Since he died a few years ago, however, money has been really tight, and her mother has been showing the realtor Mr. Payne around with the intent of selling the house. Janie is determined to stop him. She begins tutoring one of her classmates, Kevin, after school to earn some extra money. She also wants to start bringing down some of the original furniture from the attic to try and get their house on the historical circuit. Kevin’s mother is an antiques dealer and he thinks some of it may be valuable.

In the process, Jamie stumbles across a quilt made by her great-grandmother during the Depression which is an exact replica of the house. She also finds letters from her great-grandfather hinting that hid money in the house before he died, and that he added a clue to the quilt. Before Jamie has a chance to investigate, however, the quilt is stolen from her back porch. Her mom will be signing papers to sell the house in a few days, so Jamie and Kevin have very little time to recover the quilt and save the house.

I find it amusing that the plot elements I was drawn to even at a young age are still the ones that resonate with me: old houses/antiques, mysteries, connections to people in the past, hidden treasures, and hints of romance. I could definitely fill a shelf with children’s books that have some or all of these themes (like The Family Tree). Fewer adult books seem to have all of these at once, especially the hidden treasures part, but if anyone has any recommendations feel free to pass them along!

Every book sale has a different character, and I’ve found that the library bi-annual sales are the worst for older non-classic adult fiction but best for series books in terms of quantity.

• I’m slowly but surely building a set of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys paperbacks. Most of the Files/Casefiles I have because I actually read those growing up, but I’m trying to fill in my sparse collection of digests. These ones are all in pretty good condition. I was also thrilled to find a first printing of Without a Trace. I have the boxed set of the first four Girl Detective books, but they are all much later printings.
• The Clue in the Jewel Box is a neat library binding, and I did not own a revised text version of The Clue in the Old Album. This one has the third cover art.
• Secret of the Old Sleigh and Phantom of Dark Oaks: I always see Linda Craig advertised in the back of the Wanderer Nancy Drews. Of course, now I need to track down the beginning volumes to start with!
• Mission Moonfire: This is a Christopher Cool, T.E.E.N. Agent book. It was one of the other series parodied in Chelsea Cain’s Confessions of a Teen Sleuth. I started flipping through, and it’s fun but totally cheesy. Did Simon and Schuster use this as the inspiration for A.T.A.C in the Undercover Brother series? Did they think about the fact that this lasted for 6 volumes while the Hardy Boys classic formula stayed strong?
• The Bobbsey Twins at the Ice Carnival and The Mystery at Snow Lodge: I think I’m up to six Bobbsey Twins books with dust jackets now–but that’s okay because they’re all the same.
• two Boxcar Children books and a Mandie book: I was excited about the Amusement Park Mystery because it’s the only one I was missing out of 1-30. I used to buy them from the Scholastic Book orders at school, but I somehow missed some and had to read them at the library instead.

And yes, I do buy adult books too!

• 
• Murder at Arroways, by Helen Reilly: an Inspector McKee mystery. I have another one requested on Bookmooch, but the person seems to have changed his or her email address since joining so I have little hope of ever receiving it.
• Blood Orange Brewing and Dragonwell Dead, by Laura Childs: I am so far behind on the Tea Shop Mysteries, but I do want to continue reading them.
• The Double Comfort Safari Club, by Alexander McCall Smith: I need to catch up with this series, too. I also passed up another one in the series I could have sworn I already owned, but I don’t think I do. I suppose that makes up for the Susan Wittig Albert book I accidentally bought a duplicate of. This happens surprisingly infrequently given the number of books I own.
• The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde
• Alarums and Diversions, by James Thurber: our copy was pretty beat-up, and this one has a dust jacket.
• Suite Française, by Irene Nemirovsky: this one has been on my reading list for a long time.

• 
• In My Father’s House and The Last Silk Dress, by Ann Rinaldi: She writes the best American historical fiction. Both of these are set during the Civil War. The first is about the family whose house was used for the surrender (I never realized Appomatox Courthouse was a village and not a building). The second is about a hot air balloon that the south attempted to use.
• Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens: We don’t own this one, and Dickens is definitely an author of whom I’d like to read more.
  
• The Plague, by Albert Camus: I don’t know if existential writing is really my thing, but I guess I won’t know until I try.
• The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse: I’m thrilled to have found another of these lovely editions.
• The Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy: I might have to save this for summer, but I;m looking forward to working my way through it.

Whew! I don’t usually ask for books for Christmas because I don’t mind waiting and can find them used later on. Hopefully these are the last books that enter the house for a while until I find any others to get rid of.

“If we have guessed wrong,” said Jean, “I’ll never be able to look a policeman in the eye again.”

“They’ll be wild!” admitted Louise. “But I’m sure we’re right, Jean. We can’t be wrong this time.”

I managed to squeeze in a second book during the power outage, and continued with the adventures of the Dana Girls in The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage.

The book begins about a month after By the Light of the Study Lamp when the popular young English teacher Amy Tisdale [I keep wanting to say Ashley Tisdale] invites Jean and Louise to Friday night dinner with her parents. It seems her father, a perpetually grumpy hypochondriac, isn’t doing so well healthwise. As they pull out of Starhurst, Miss Tisdale seems shaken by a rough looking man who tries to stop the car, and she tells him not today. A few days later, Miss Tisdale receives a telegram during class and leaves suddenly. She is not heard from again, though her car is found abandoned on the road to Hilton.

Mrs. Tisdale does not want to tell her husband (or the police) because she fears her husband’s heart won’t be able to take the strain; instead, she hires a private detective and asks the girls to do everything they can to investigate. She also mentions that Amy had a twin sister Alice, now Mrs. Brixton, who was disowned for marrying a man of whom her family did not approve. On a hunch, the girls go into Hilton and manage to track down Mrs. Brixton, now widowed, and her five-year-old daughter Baby Faith.

Alice Brixton is doing poorly both in health and finances, and her home at Lone Tree Cottage is a shabby little place. Lately she has been hounded by one of her husband’s former business associates, a sailor named Sol Tepper, who claims that she owes him money her husband swindled him out of. She is afraid he may have kidnapped Amy for ransom. Her fears prove correct when a letter from Amy arrives saying $5000 will be asked from their parents. Miss Tisdale used their sisterly code (every fourth word), however, to request that they not pay ransom or notify their Father.

Louise and Jean, though hesitant to keep the struggles of both sisters a secret from their Father, continue the search for Sol Tepper. Every time they get a lead, however, something happens to change the game. Sol even resorts to kidnapping Faith when he doesn’t receive his ransom. Finally, with Uncle Ned’s help, they search up and down the river and find the hideout, reuniting the entire extended Tisdale family just in time for Thanksgiving.

Notes and thoughts on the book:

• I’m sure it was a different world back then, but I teach high school and it seems odd for a teacher to bring individual students home to meet her parents. As a student, the only time it happened was when my French teacher hosted the entire honor society for a traditional meal at the end of the year.  I had college professors do something similar as well.
• “Carolyn Keene” takes great care to distinguish between the sisters, especially in this sentence after Louise runs off to fix her hair before meeting a visitor: “Jean, who was not so particular about appearances, sauntered into the library.” Louise, of course, would never saunter. Neither would Nancy Drew. George probably would.
• The girls are naturally champions at the school tennis match
• Never let it be said that the Dana girls neglect their studies! Miss Tisdale’s substitute is so strict that Jean has to read David Copperfield in the car as the girls drive to Hilton. Later, of course, they take off two days from classes.

“Hello,” drawled Lettie. “I hear you had the day off. It’s nice to be some people. Mr. Crandall must be thinking of adopting you.”

• Math at work: Louise uses a map to draw a five-mile-radius circle in order to narrow down their search. Jean is able to calculate in her head the area they will need to cover (31 and 3/7 miles; apparently they use 22/7 for pi).
• A world-wise Uncle Ned cautions the girls that they have no proof Mrs. Brixton is who she claims to be, and don’t know she is trustworthy. They protest that Baby Faith is too adorable to have a mother who is a crook. Uncle Ned is not convinced; clearly he doesn’t understand series book conventions like the girls already do.

“Whenever a particularly mean trick is played in Starhurst,” said Louise, as Evelyn disappeared, “everyone immediately thinks of Lettie Briggs.”

• Pranks: Lettie moves Miss Tisdale’s car so the girls will think it has been stolen, but accidentally leaves her handkerchief on the seat; Jean sends Lettie into the library telling her she has a male visitor, but it’s really the detective waiting for Louise; Lettie steals a Thanksgiving basket the girls had bought for the Brixtons (and has the grace to feel guilty afterwards)

“And that,” said Jean, as they drove back to Starhurst, “ends the excitement for today.”

Jean suggested that they notify the police station, but Louise would not hear of it. “I like mysteries, she declared, “and this is something of a mystery. We’ll handle it ourselves. If I find the man who drove that car, I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”

It’s been a while since I last read these, but I was still surprised how much I remembered. The book begins when Louise and Jean receive a beautiful antique study lamp from their Uncle Ned, to adorn the new study they will have this year at Starhurst School for Girls. When they leave the room for a few minutes, however, they come back to find that the lamp has been stolen. They rush outside to see a car pulling away and quickly follow it into Oak Falls, where they find it parked outside of a secondhand shop. The owner, Jake Garbone, turns nasty when Jean confronts him, and sends her away.

On their way home the girls rescue a man who has fallen into the river near the rapids and been knocked unconscious. The man, Franklin Starr, turns out to have been on his way to the Dana house to visit Captain Ned. He is also the older brother of one of the girls’ classmates, Evelyn Starr. The Starr family used to own the property and buildings now used by Starhurst, until their parents died and money got tight. Evelyn may no longer be able to afford tuition, though Franklin is convinced that his father left something behind for them.

The girls head for Starhurst the next day, and on the train they spy Jake Garbone’s gypsy-like assistant. They manage to stop her from stealing the luggage of wealthy Mrs. Grantland, though she does make away with the woman’s pearl ring. Mrs. Grantland is eternally grateful, asks the girls to work on finding the ring, and promises the loan of her car whenever they need it.

Over the course of the book the girls try to track down their lamp, Mrs. Grantland’s ring, Jake Garbone and the gypsy Fay Violette, and later Franklin Starr when he disappears. There is also a subplot involving a mysterious plumber at the school; the girls’ nemesis Lettie Briggs links his name with Jean’s in a malicious rumor. Oh, and it would be nice if they could manage to restore the Starr family fortune in the process. Needless to say, they are successful on all counts.

“I daresay we could solve the mystery of this lamp quite as well as any man,” declared Jean. “I think we’d make good detectives if we had a chance.”

Two of my favorite things about old series books are the over-the-top contrivances and coincidences, and the glimpses into everyday 1930s life (I hesitate to say the girls’ lives are “normal”). As I read I found myself marking all the spots that stood out, and it’s easier to list them than write in detail:

• The lamp arrives in a box–but one that needs to be opened with a hammer and chisel, and is packed full with newspaper and excelsior (which also used to be used to stuff teddy bears)
• The girls having a going away party with their neighborhood friends who attend Oak Falls High, including Sally and Sam Gray, but I don’t recall these friends being mentioned in any other books. We do see more of their school friends later: Nell Carson, Doris Harland, Ann Freeman, and Margaret Glenn
• As far as I can tell, the Starr financial troubles are the only hardship that could be in any way traced to the depression. Every other character seems to live comfortably.
• Pranks: Lettie steals the girls’ lamp and gives it to the cook, Amanda, so Jean gives Lettie and Ina red-pepper-filled cream puffs.
• “Carolyn Keene” is big on skull fractures; that is the big fear when Franklin is rescued from the rapids and when Fay Violette hits her head on a stone.
• Louise seems to be the designated driver for the duo, and is quite skilled at it–including driving an out-of-gas car downhill all the way to Penfield without using the brake to get to the police station. Luckily there was no cross-traffic!
• Jean does such a horrible job recounting events to headmistress Mrs. Crandall that she is assigned extra writing exercises and admonished that “one fact must lead directly to the next.”

My old copies of the books used to belong to my grandmother and are starting to fall apart. I need to look into finding some facsimile dust jackets I can use to protect the covers.

• 
• The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I’d never heard of this one before, so I picked it up for my mom.
• Tish and More Tish, by Mary Roberts Rinehart: I already own The Best of Tish and had received Tish for Christmas last year, but this is a much nicer copy with a dust jacket. Besides, I couldn’t take one and leave the other when they likely spent the last sixty years together!
• Two-Part Invention, by Madeleine L’Engle: This autobiographical account by one of my favorite authors describes her long marriage and her husband’s eventual decline in health.
• Murder Roundabout, by Richard Lockridge: This is one of the Captain Heimrich mysteries, written after Frances Lockridge died. I’ve never read these, but my mom has several, and their Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries were just mentioned in Death on Demand.
• Death in the Andamans, by M. M. Kaye: Now I’m only missing Death in Kashmir in hardcover!
• Echoes from the Macabre, by Daphne du Maurier: Danielle has frequently mentioned how good her short stories are, so I figured I’d give them a try.
• The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories: Over the summer I also picked up a very old ten-volume set of detective short stories, so I think I’ve got these covered for a while!

• Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde: I’ve been upgrading these to hardcover, and now I only need the first and sixth. I haven’t read the latest two, and although I know I could pick up again in the middle, I’d love to go back and reread from the beginning!
• Bridesmaids Revisited and Goodbye, Ms. Chips, by Dorothy Cannell: I haven’t read any Ellie Haskell mysteries in a while, but I remember them being drop dead funny. This was during her takeoff-title phase, apparently.
• Dead Days of Summer, Laughed Till He Died, April Fool Dead, Murder Walks the Plank, and The Christie Caper, by Carolyn Hart: I think I’m set for when I continue with the Death on Demand series! I’m up to about twelve so far.

Even better–when I opened up the last one at home to catalogue it, guess what I noticed on the title page:

I’m not Simone, but I still like Annie and Max and am pretty pleased to have an autographed copy!

I also found several Nancy Drew library editions and a few Boxcar Children and Bobbsey Twins books.

]]> http://sequesterednooks.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/october-book-sale/feed/ 0 mystrygirl87 books 031 books 033 books 032 http://sequesterednooks.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/design-for-murder/ http://sequesterednooks.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/design-for-murder/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:16:11 +0000 mystrygirl87 http://sequesterednooks.wordpress.com/?p=1360 ]]> I followed up with Carolyn Hart’s next Death on Demand mystery relatively quickly after reading the first one. I don’t know why I waited so long to read these; they are well-written, great fun, and a wonderful tribute to the mystery genre.

In this volume, Annie Laurance, proprietor of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore, has been asked by the frosty Corinne Webster to plan a Mystery Night for the Historical Preservation Society’s house tour in nearby Chastain. Though president, Mrs. Webster makes it pretty clear she does not support the idea, and makes a quick enemy out of Annie, who has to try hard to bite her tongue. Nevertheless, she is thrilled at the opportunity to plot a fictitious crime.

The week before Annie will present her plan to the Board of the Historical Preservation Society, she receives a plot in the mail signed by Corinne Webster which she is instructed to use, about the murder of a woman in which motive abounded. When she reads this at the meeting, however, all hell breaks loose; everyone present recognizes the victim as Corinne, who accuses Annie of creating the plot and threatens to call the whole thing off.

Annie’s fiancé Max Darling, who has recently set up a small investigation practice to pass the time, strongly advises her to have nothing more to do with matter, but Annie is determined to see her Mystery Night through. The other board members are ready to play their roles and are counting on her to make it a success. It look like it will be when tickets begin selling quickly. On opening night, however, when Annie makes a final check at the scene of the crime, she finds Corinne killed for real with her own murder weapon prop.

With this circumstantial evidence it doesn’t take long for the local policeman to hone in on Annie as a number one suspect, especially because she is an outsider to town and had lost her temper with Corinne earlier in the day. If she wants to clear her name it’s up to her and Max to present a credible alternative suspect. Luckily, the revelations in the false plot letter give them a great starting point. Corinne is thwarting the career of a promising young artist by claiming his painting are the property of her family’s museum, which gives the town vixen Sybil another reason to hate her. She has done everything in her power to prevent her timid neice Gail from seeing the brusque young reporter she loves. She has the potential to hurt the marriage or career of two town professionals, and her own husband the mayor might be having an affair. Even her closest friend was once in love with Corinne’s brother and had that relationship broken off. It’s no secret that all those close to Corinne had reason to kill her; the only important question remaining is who actually carried it through.

In a 300-page mystery the murder didn’t occur until almost halfway through, and I didn’t even mind or notice. In the end we do get a double mystery because of Annie’s own plot. Carolyn Hart also spent the time leading up to the murder in a worthwhile manner, setting the stage for the crime and building a general sense of antagonism towards Corinne. She really was a very nasty person. On the other hand, Annie and Max continue to entertain me. They are very likable and well-rounded characters, each with a distinct set of traits and flaws; though different, they complement each other and work well as a team.

It’s so refreshing to find a series with a police protagonist that remains realistic. For so many cozy series I have a hard time believing that the amateur sleuths stumble upon so many bodies, and that the police allow them to participate to the extent that they do. Both Annie and Max have plausible backgrounds for their abilities to solve crimes and plausible reasons for doing so. I like that Carolyn Hart gave them one crime to work with rather than separate interlocking ones, as might have been the temptation. I grew up on the Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew and can suspend my disbelief with the best of them, but I also like having a series where that’s not necessary. I do hope that in the future Max will get more business for his “Confidential Commissions,” though, other than just keeping Annie out of trouble.

Carolyn Hart also continues her myriad of mystery references. I consider myself relatively well-versed in the genre, even if not yet well-read, because my relatives are all aficionados. I recognized a lot of the authors and detectives mentioned, but many were also unfamiliar to me. I’m curious if anyone’s ever made a list of all the references; I did a search but didn’t seem to find one. A few reviews I came across said the habit got annoying, but I actually think it suits Annie’s character. It’s part of her job to be able to spout off authors at will or come up with the title from a customer’s sketchy description. Most of the references were confined to the plot devices of various novels when she was devising her Mystery Night, or characters she thought of when in certain situations. For example, at the Mystery Ball at the end of the tours, everyone must come dressed as a favorite sleuth. I love that Annie chose Nancy Drew and Max was Joe Hardy. It certainly mixes things up a bit. I wonder if Ned doesn’t count as a sleuth, or if Max just didn’t want to bother with a wig over his blond hair.

Part of me wants to keep going in the series right away, but another part wants to actually read more of the mysteries mentioned. A lot of our mysteries were packed up while we redid the spare room. Now that they are out again, they look tempting as the perfect quick reads for weekends.

This one is the 24th in the Girl Detective series, from way back in 2007.  I try to buy them as they come out (they’re pretty much the only books I’m willing to pay full price for), but I’m so far behind I don’t think I’ll ever catch up. They’re already up to 45. It’s also been quite a while since I read the last one. It doesn’t seem like it’s been two years!

In this volume Bess is super excited that Hollywood will be practically in their own backyard. After an accident on the set of his last film five years ago, Gordon MacIntyre is back in the director’s chair for a blockbuster filmed in River Heights and starring two of Hollywood’s hottest names, Brett Harley and Fiona Gibson. Even better, he will be casting locals as extras, so Bess jumps at the chance to get close to the heartthrob. Nancy’s not so much into the glitz and glamour, but she is into mysteries, and when she hears from her dad that Gordon and Brett have received threatening notes she decides that being an extra is the perfect cover for an investigation. Unfortunately, events don’t go as either Nancy or Bess would like. Soon, Nancy realizes that danger just might be afoot, if only she knew who to warn and who is responsible.

First off, why is there NO mention of the film that took place in River Heights for books 5 and 6? Nancy keeps going on about how she gets stage fright, and can’t act, unless it’s for a case, but she already played the lead role of Esther Rackham in the movie about River Heights. I read it before I started writing about the books so I don’t recall if it was actually a Hollywood film or if Bess was an extra. I understand that it would be a nightmare to have continuity with all Nancy Drews ever written, so I’ll overlook that all three girls were extras in Double Horror of Fenley Place in the classic series, but to ignore two books in the same series is a little much. I guess they just wanted a Hollywood tie-in for the real Nancy Drew movie.

There were other contrived inconsistencies as well, such as having George suddenly driving a 1978 bucket of bolts simply so she could be asked to use it in the film. Nancy doesn’t want to tell George and especially Bess about the case, because she doesn’t know if she can trust them. Never mind the hundreds of cases they’ve helped with in the past. Bess is now five inches shorter than Nancy’s 5’7”, and even more so than George. She apparently suffers extreme mood swings between glumness and euphoria, and just for good measure is described as being cheap and never wanting to spend money. I’m pretty sure the Bess I know loves shopping.

The plot was okay, but not great. It seemed more about characters than anything else. And while I liked the longer length in this one, I felt like it really needed more substance to make it worthwhile. As I tried to write the summary above I realized that most of what happens is movie set filler, drama not related to the crime, or red herring filler. Nancy flirts with movie stars, fights with Deirdre, picks a lock, placates Bess, and talks about explosives. And repeats. We had enough handsome movie star romantic tension that at times it read like a Nancy Drew File. If this is for ages 8-12 I’m not sure why they have Nancy making out with the male lead as a stand-in actress and going on a date with a man fifteen years her senior. At the same time, it looks like her eventual reconciliation with Ned is taken for granted because those events were beyond her control, and is not a priority on either side. The author doesn’t even write a “kiss and make up” scene until the end of the book at the movie premiere, which was probably some time after the filming ended. I like the easy relationship the couple has in this series, and Nancy was definitely worried about hurting Ned, but I never thought I’d say that it was too casual.

In other relationship news, the relationship between Chief McGinnis and Nancy seems pretty official at this point. He’s an idiot who either refuses to let Nancy be involved, blocks her investigation, or takes credit when she does succeed. And, apparently, is jealous because she still succeeds with more regularity than he does. I’m still not sure whether I like the dynamic, but it does add an element of humor.

This is not one of my favorites in the series, but from what I’ve heard of later volumes I guess it could be a lot worse.

Six years ago Jack Carstares, Earl of Wyndham, accepted an accusation that he cheated at cards. Though his sacrifice preserved his younger brother Richard’s honor and hopes of wooing the lovely Lavinia Belmanoir, Jack himself was disgraced and fled the country. Now he has returned to England and passes his time roaming the countryside as a highwayman. He is only Robin Hood by half, which I find less charming; he steals from the rich and…keeps it for himself. [But this is okay, because he has been unfairly denied access to his inheritance, and needs to stay solvent somehow. Besides, those odious people don't need their money anyway.]

Though Dick did win Lavinia, he has never forgiven himself for allowing his brother to take the fall. Recently, however, it all but consumes his thoughts. He convinced his father to still will the title and estate to Jack before his death. He told Lavinia the truth right after they married and she cares not that she married a cheater, only that her social standing be maintained. His fear of losing her is the only thing still preventing him from revealing the truth. Well, also the fact that he is slightly intimidated by her brother Tracy, Duke of Andover, who just might have manipulated the whole card affair in the first place.

In one week, Jack has two roadside escapades that change events entirely. First, he accidentally holds up a friend from his former life, Miles O’Hara, a justice of peace who discovers his identity and is determined to see him restored. Second, he foibles “Devil” Belmanoir’s attempt to kidnap and marry the lovely Diana Beauleigh, and is wounded in the process. While recuperating at the Beauleigh manor,  he tries to convince Diana he is not worthy of her, and she tries to convince him of the opposite. Neither quite succeeds, and they might go on fawning at each other indefinitely if the Duke doesn’t have other plans to win Diana for himself.

The Black Moth does already have a lot of the elements that make a Georgette Heyer book great: multiple couples (happily married, unhappily married, and courting), likable chaperones, extremely fashionable gentlemen, and non-traditional females. Diana pretty much threw herself at Jack several times, even going so far as to propose to him, but he was too noble and self-sacrificing to accept (can you sense a theme with his character?). The writing was great, and if wit was lacking she made up for it with humor. For some reason, though, I just didn’t totally buy into the story of Jack and Diana. I liked the plot with Richard and Lavinia much more, and those were the parts I reread when writing this review. Perhaps its because they had weaknesses and regrets, and therefore more tension, whereas the main couple came off as a bit flat.

The Duke of Andover as a complex “villain” had the potential to be the best aspect of the book, but never quite achieved it. He was never friendly and often acted out of selfish ends, without caring if anyone else was hurt; if fact, he seemed to pride himself on his resolve and reputation. However, Lavinia adores him, and his closest friend Frank, who seems to have a good head on his shoulders, is also quite fond and often pities him. We are not given a reason for his being likable by those two characters, other than the length of their acquaintances. I was almost sorry for the Duke myself at times, but realized I never really had cause to be. He is neither likable enough to be an anti-hero, nor despised enough to be a true scoundrel.

Georgette Heyer doesn’t use any exact dates, but from all the fashions this seems to be set in the mid to late eighteenth century. The women wear silk dresses with wide skirts, and the men wear patches and tight jackets. Powder is even more prevalent than snuff. I love the American colonial era, but some of the European upper class fashions are a bit much for me. I prefer my men without fountains of lace and embroidered satin waistcoats, thank you very much.

All in all I don’t think The Black Moth will ever be among my most favorite Georgette Heyer romances, but it’s the book that started it all, and quite an output for a girl who was fifteen at the time!