At Home: Reading Through February

I thought I should share the February books before March passes us by! February was a short and slightly disruptive month in my world. I had exhausted my supply of short books to add to quantity but I have several good ones to share with you this month.

"The Silent World of Nicolas Quinn" by Colin Dexter

Long before Inspector Morse was a TV series, it was an excellent mystery series by Colin Dexter. "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn" is the third book in the series, and the second of the British television series. (Trivia fact: Dexter had in his will that only John Thaw, the original Morse, or Shaun Evans, who played young Morse in "Endeavour," could ever do the role on screen.)

The novel begins with a meeting of the Syndicate, an organization that provides testing for students preparing to enter Oxford. When it is time to hire a new staff member, there is a bit of an argument over candidates. In the end, Nicholas Quinn,  a highly qualified candidate proposed by one of the younger members of the group, is chosen in a close balloting. He has much in his favor, with the only challenge being his disability. Quinn is deaf and while he can speak, his "hearing" is limited to lip reading.

He has no apparent enemies and good working relationships with his colleagues. So when he is found dead in his flat, Morse and Lewis are somewhat baffled. A suicide seems unlikely. And, as they question his colleagues -- his supervisor Bartlett, the lovely Monica Height, and fellow gentlemen Ogleby and Martin, along with Mr. Roope, who nominated him for his position -- motive is difficult to find. Even the neighbors and cleaning lady can find no logical reason someone would want him dead.

But those who know of Morse's exploits will know that the crossword-loving, pint-drinking inspector is intrepid and he (with the help of Sergeant Lewis) unravels not only Quinn's death but a scandal involving the Syndicate that may well be the motive.

"The Templars' Last Secret" by Martin Walker

The French village of St. Denis sounds idyllic, until one thinks of the number of murders and frightening events that happen in this region of the Perigord. But never fear, Bruno, the Chief of Police, always pulls through, along with help from his numerous village contacts, fellow police and officials in nearby areas and even the Ministry of the Interior, when needed. That's Bruno for you -- all this action and he still has time to prepare a remarkable salmon, veal or omelette, with a salad from his own garden.

This time, Bruno is preparing to be best man at the wedding of archaeologists Horst and Chlotilde, who are investigating the other caves of the Lescaux. When he spots  unusual graffiti on a nearby chateau's tower, along with the apparent murder of the perpetrator, he is on the case. This time he is accompanied by a visiting official from the Justice department who is shadowing him as an example of an outstanding small town policeman with excellent ideas. Amelie has ideas of her own, along with a pretty comprehensive mastery of the internet, so when the case goes deeper than searching for Templar treasure and leads toward potential acts of terrorism, the two make a good team.

With at least four terrorists in the area, the upcoming opening of a Scout camp for children of all faiths, and a great discovery at the caves by Horst's team, it's clear the job is bigger than just Bruno and his colleagues, J.J., Sergeant Julies, and Yveline. The Ministry of the Interior is called in and with it, the Brigadier and Isabelle, Bruno's one time love. (A note on the scout camp -- In France, each major religion -- Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims, -- each have their own scout troop. The camp was established in a previous book, by a character named Yacov Kaufman, who appears here as well.)

There's a lot of historic information in this one and it appears that Walker has done his research well. The book itself, of course, is fiction, but the remarkable cave of Lescaux is very real, as are the Templar legends. He presents all this in an interesting way -- enough so to make me go googling after. And, there is definitely a lot of action in the final pages of the book, with a wonderful final few chapters that kept me turning the pages and staying up way too late. 

If you like the Bruno books (best read more or less in order), this one -- well into the series -- would still be a fun one to read first. (Walker does a good job including the backstory of the major characters in case this is your first time.) 

"The Husband Hunters" by Anne de Courcy

Fans of "Downton Abbey" may well recall that in times prior to the series, the Abbey was "saved" financially by the marriage of Cora Levinson to Lord Grantham. She was part of a large group of American woman whose families were shunned by Mrs. Astor's "400" in the Gilded Age of Society and sent their daughters to Europe to find titled husbands, providing a large dowry which was helping the often cash-strapped nobility save their estates. They were known as "The Buccaneers," a name made famous by Edith Wharton's novel of the same name.

Historian Anne de Courcy tells us of several of real-life "Buccaneers" and the times in which they lived in this comprehensive and detailed look back at an obscenely lavish lifestyle. No, "obscenely lavish" is selling it short. The way these families lived and entertained, dressed and courted favor, is well beyond lavish. Reading it during our period of American Oligarchy felt both squeamish and intriguing, and ultimately a little creepy.

Essentially, in these times -- beginning post-Civil War and continuing into the early turn of the century -- young American women were being groomed -- not by unsavory gentlemen for nefarious purposes, but by their own mothers to make a respectable social match. Love and fidelity were rarely issues to be considered, only status, wealth and title. It was a seedy business, wrapped up in opulent excess, often with sad results.

While most of the names floated in de Courcy's book were unfamiliar to me, the stories were both tragic and interesting. We see Alva Vanderbilt imprison her daughter Consuelo in their Newport mansion, Marble House, until she agrees to and has married Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. Jennie Jerome is "sold" to Lord Randolph Spencer-Churchill, becoming the mother of Winston Churchill and later mistress to King Edward VII. (The Prince of Wales, later King, plays a great role in this book.) Maud Burke marries the much older baronet, Sir Bache Cunard, becoming better known as Emerald Cunard, who leaves her husband for a string of younger lovers. 

Did I like the book? Yes and no. It's well written and well researched and the subject matter was interesting in a general sense, amplifying something about which I knew a bit -- but not much. That said, it felt a bit tragic and yes, grungy, to me. I was glad to be done with it. (I will admit, I love visiting those marvelous historic homes. But as de Courcy makes clear, many of them were far from happy ones.)

(To see two of the mansions featured in this book, check out Dorothy's posts on The Frog and the Penguin HERE (Marble House) and HERE (The Breakers).

"Fell Murders" by E.C.R. Lorac

I'm so amazed more people don't seem to know about E.C.R. Lorac as a mystery writer. Granted, she wrote in the 1940s and didn't reach the volume of work of Agatha Christie or the cachet of Dorothy L. Sayers, but I've never been disappointed in one of her mysteries (reissued by British Library Crime Classics) and "Fell Murder" continued that tradition.

Robert Garth is no one's favorite farmer, though respected by his community he is also known for his rough temper, hard dealings, and tight fistedness. His refusal to honor his son's marriage decades before to the daughter of a neighboring father led to the son leaving England, not having returned in 25 years. His three local children, Marion, Charles and Malcolm, argue with him frequently. But no one is prepared when his estate manager, John Scales, finds him shot dead in a hut on his property.  

Local detective Laygn is a bit out of his depth in dealing with the case, lacking the social skills to best communicate with the farmers, a tight-knit community who are less than forthcoming with an inspector more used to dealing with city folk. So, Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Inspector McDonald is called in, a Scot with a country background, to see if he can unravel a case with too many possibilities and no terribly hard evidence.

Lorac's mysteries read quickly and she seems as adept writing about the rural farming community as she does the upper crust. This is a good one. Try her out! 

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