Monday Mash Up

 

Monday, November 6, 2023 ~~ Books & More...

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THOUGHTS/TICKETS

Another interesting week. Midori in concert and a visit to the Yiddish Book Center

OUGHTTOBIOGRAPHY

Now that I set up a "scanning station" I ought to be scanning and not playing computer games -- in between cleaning out the bedroom for DD1's annual 6 week visit, which I also ought to be doing!

 

 

THE BOOKS

No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews

Necessary roughage! Always a fun read -- and I needed a fun read. But, nothing new to say about the series.
3 stars

The Devil to Pay by Ellery Queen (aka Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay aka Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky and Daniel Nathan)

I enjoyed this this one for multiple reasons. First, Ellery Queen was not the snooty social dilettante encountered in earlier novels -- who I think is a supercilious prig. Thank goodness the boys had the smarts to let their MC move with times. What was new and fresh in 1929 was worn out by 1938. Second, I like the strange yet really awkward juxtaposition of college-level vocabulary and barely-educated (but, by no means, unintelligent) street thugs that populate the book. Third, I enjoy the mysteries themselves, not just the characters and the writing.
3.25 stars

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife by Erle Stanley Gardner
Agatha Christie Centenary Read Side-Read (any Perry Mason title from the 1940s)

Loved the story. Loved how he got to the truth. Loved how the court room scenes were skillfully used.
Did not love the narrator; didn't even like him. He was extremely skilled a juggling the voices and moving from voice to voice with hesitation (or else good sound editing). But I did not like his choices for the various characters. The voices just didn't fit the characters.
Sorry to say that since the same narrator reads every single one of the books on Audible, I am 'one and done,' as much as I would like to read more Perry Mason.

Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie

I liked how she didn't hurry to the murder but the perp was clear very early on, even though Aggie served up plates of and plates of red herring.
3.5 stars

Great Courses: The Black Death, New Lessons From Recent Research by Dorsey Armstrong

This must have been her Covid lock-down project. Recent research has proven some of the content of her earlier course to be wrong. This was her chance to update the science and delve ever so briefly into Covid. Don't do this one before you do the first lecture series. She is a great speaker so you won't mind the extra time spent.
3.5 star

The Mountains Have A Secret by Arthur W. Upfield

The twenty years between his first "Bony" mystery(1929) and this one (1948) have made a real difference. The early books seemed too much focused on Bony's racial background and less focused on the story and the mystery. This outing was all about the story -- and it was a humdinger. No spoilers, not even a hint except to say that this one sent chills up and down my spine.
3.75 stars

The Camera Man by Peter Grainger

I am wondering if Grainger has lost interest in the King's Lake series and has returned his focus to DC Smith. Good move as far as I am concerned. The King's Lake series seems to becoming more soap opera than crime-solving and DC (retired) David Smith is a far more complex and far more interesting character than the whole cast of King's Lake. David Smith is a part-time PI, working for a small security and investigations firm. He no longer has a team to the leg work for him. No labs at his beck and call. No access to databases even. The only thing he has are the talents that he honed during his years as police investigator. As M. Poirot would say, "his little grey cells."

I do hope that Grainger will continue to find equally as compelling adventures for David Smith -- and that Gildart Jackson will continue to narrate them.
3.75 stars.