I’m a fan of a Michael Chabon. “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” is an amazing book. “Telegraph Avenue” is one of my favorites as well. Those are serious tomes, so I was interested in reading this little book to see how he manages to encapsulate his general style of verbose prose into a novella. In 1944, a retired British detective in his twilight years is raising bees at his small cottage in the English countryside. He becomes involved in the investigation of a […]
Clouds of Witness
“But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues” – Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Whimsey has abandoned dismal London for the sights and sounds of Corsica. He is relaxed and feeling good when he spots a disturbing headline. His brother, the Duke of Denver, has been arrested for muuurdeeerrrr. He has to hop a biplane home (which is just such fabulous imagery) to rescue the family. Once home he is confronted with the icy reserve of upper crust houseguests, his […]
Jones, Victoria Jones
They Came to Baghdad Starting off the 2017 Cannonball with a book I have never read by one of my favorite authors. They Came to Baghdad is an Agatha Christie book but there are no delightful British spinsters or fussy Belgians on the case. Instead this is the story of a young British woman who is failing spectacularly at being a career gal in London shortly after World War II. She’s indifferent to typing and a confident spinner of half-truths and white lies. I don’t […]
Mon cher Poirot
After my recent Alex Cross-athon, I felt I needed a palate cleanser. And what better, than to re-read some old favorites, by the grande dame of mystery herself, Agatha Christie? I first discovered Christie when I was about 10 or 11, prowling through my mother’s bookcases for something to read. I guess I had exhausted whatever I had taken home from the Bookmobile – probably Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins or a collection of folktales. The first Christie I read was The Moving Finger. I still have my mom’s paperback, with its lurid […]