Two Reads

The Black Stocking by Constance and Gwenyth Little  1946

Irene was having a really bad day. And it wasn’t just the fact that everyone thought she was an escaped lunatic, either.

Irene Hastings, who can’t decide which of her two fiancés she should marry, is looking forward to a nice vacation and everything would have been just fine had not her mousy friend Ann asked to be dropped off at an insane asylum so she could visit her sister.

When the sister escapes, just about everyone, including a handsome young doctor, mistakes Irene for the runaway loony, and she is put up at an isolated private hospital under house arrest, pending final identification.

Only there’s not a bed to be had in the hospital. One of the staff is already sleeping in a tent on the grounds, so it’s decided that Irene is to share a bedroom with young Dr. Ross Munster, much to the consternation of both parties. On the other hand, Irene’s much-married mother Elise, an Auntie Mama type who rushes to her rescue, figures that the young doctor has son-in-law written all over him. She also figures there’s plenty of room in that bedroom for herself as well.

In the meantime, Irene runs into a headless nurse, a corpse that won’t stay put, an empty coffin and a mysterious black stocking, prompting the local police to think very seriously about locking her up in a real jail. As Elise would say, “Mong Dew!”

It all adds up to another zany mystery from the sisters Little, who wrote 21 mysteries that one critic described as “celluloid screwball comedy printed on paper.”

Not mentioned in this description is another doctor at the hospital looking for a missing will and clearing up the problem of who really owns this screwball private hospital. I LOVED this book! When not reading it I was think about it all the time until I could pick it up again. I’ve read several of their books and this was the best! Probably the most fun I’ve read all year. I have three more of their books on my shelf and I can’t wait to dig in! I’d like to get my hands on all 21. Always fun. Please someone turn these into movies!

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An English Murder by Cyril Hare  1951

A Golden Age classic set on Christmas Eve

The snow is thick, the phone line is down and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. With friends and family gathered round the fire, all should be set for a perfect Christmas, but as the bells chime midnight, a murder takes place.

Who can be responsible? The scorned young lover? The Lord’s passed-over cousin? The social-climbing politician’s wife? the Czech history professor? The obsequious butler? And perhaps the real question is can any of them survive long enough to tell the tale? 

A delicious wintry house whodunnit! I thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas read! I thought I knew who did it, but there was a complex political historical thread that fits into the why that I had no clue about! Lots of good characters to like and a few to loathe! I especially liked the absent minded history professor. Good read!

I started to read Christie’s A Holiday for Murder and discovered I had already read it under a different title! I really wish they wouldn’t give books different titles! So I put it down. Tried to read a Del Shannon mystery set at Christmas but just couldn’t get interested so back on the shelf for maybe next year. I’ve read 35 books this year, I’m happy with that and I can get one more in before the end of the year. How was reading this year? What was your favorite book of the year? I think mine was probably The Black Stocking.

Mysteries X2 and a Brother

Read a couple of good mysteries the last couple of weeks…

With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare – 1946

England at War. The blitz has forced the evacuation of many government offices from London and Francis Pettigrew dutifully follows his Ministry to the distant seaside resort of Marsett Bay in the north of England. Accommodations are crowded and uncomfortable while office relations leave much to be desired. The disgruntled community of civil servants must provide their own entertainment in their provincial exile, and when one of their members turns out to be a mystery writer in civilian life an amusing parlor game of “plan the perfect murder” is soon influx swing. Pettigrew remains aloof from this silliness but is promptly engaged when a victim, a real one, is discovered – slain by a common office utensil…

I enjoyed this one. The story revolves around the crew at the Pin Control Ministry. It was never explained what the ministry did really but what I can gather it is a satire on WWII British bureaucracy. Pettigrew’s old friend Inspector Mallett shows up to investigate a ‘leakage of information’ in the pin control and ends up ‘pinned’ to a murder case 🙂 There were several sub plots going on to keep you engaged and interesting characters. I have read one other Cyril Hare book and enjoyed it too, so I am looking forward to the couple others I have on the shelf.

Entry Island by Peter May – 2013

When Detective Sime (sheem) Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret.

But what had initially seemed an open and shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim’s wife, and is convinced that he knows her – even though they have never met.

And when Sime’s insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny.

Peter May is probably one of my favorite writers. His books are hard to put down. This one is special because you have two storylines going on. One in current day Canada and one during the Scottish Highland Clearances and potato famine. It brought to my attention Grosse Île, a quarantine station on a small island in the St. Lawrence River where immigrants were quarantined before being allowed into Canada. A sad place. It is a historical site now and on my bucket list, if we ever get to travel freely again ;( A top notch mystery and a sweet family story. 

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It’s been a couple of busy weeks around here. We moved my handicapped brother, Donald, down from Pennsylvania. He lived in a personal care home there, and with us down here in TN and only my in-laws up there now he was lonely. We didn’t get up there much anymore and the owners, that we loved, decided to retire and sold. The new owners weren’t in it for the love of the residences and then Covid and all this craziness started so I decided he needed to be with me. It’s hard to be an advocate from 8 hours away.

So Donald is living with us for now. It’s been a time of adjustment for all concerned. New routines for all of us. He is pretty dependent on someone for his daily care so it’s a lot of change for me especially. We’ve settled into a comfortable routine though and I think we’ve all adjusted pretty well to each other. I enjoy seeing us all work together. My son is still living here too so we have a full house. Him being here does give me some freedom to get out a little because he ‘babysits’ for me. Lots of red tape to wade through getting his Social Security changed and his medical set up etc. Donald seems happier and calmer so that’s what’s important. The plan is to find a suitable assisted living home for him, but I don’t want to do that until Covid is over. I don’t want to not be able to go visit him and bring him home for dinner or out for a ride or check on his clothes etc. So we will play it by ear. 

Donald is blind and has a fine motor skill impairment so he can’t do things like shave or tie shoes or pour a glass of tea. He was born three months premature so its pretty amazing he is alive and healthy! He can shower himself but you have to check on him and sometimes help him find the soap! I hand shave him every couple of days and he uses an electric razor himself a couple of days. He misses spots so I have to go over those with the electric razor. He has artificial eyes so we have to be careful to keep them clean and lubricated. And of course he can’t fix any meals for himself. He loves game shows and the old TV shows especially the westerns. He gets books on discs from the Library for the Blind and we have that all transferred to Nashville now from Pittsburgh. He listens to books each afternoon. He likes mysteries and westerns. He listens to CD’s and loves the oldies like Karen Carpenter and Neil Diamond. It’s getting harder to find CD’s and he can’t do touch screens so I will have to buy MP3’s and burn discs for him. He’s been heard singing along with Karen Carpenter a lot the last few days! 

An earlier picture of Donald and my mom. He still had some hair on top of his head! And me helping him keep the food on his plate, I feel like I’m becoming our mom!

Vera Lynn, the boss of the house, is getting use to Donald and gave him a good welcome. She goes in and helps me wake him up every morning and really wants the stuffed dog he sleeps with 🙂

Sorry bossman walked through my 15 second video!

Have a great day and hug someone you love today! Never know how long you’ll have them!