The Books of June

June wasn't a bad reading month. (When it's really hot, that's about all you can get the energy to do!) Again, mysteries took center stage, but I also managed to include some fiction and a series of somewhat twisted short stories that I found oddly delightful. (Don't judge me.) 

 

 "Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation" by James Runcie  

 

This is the third or fourth book the the Grantchester Chronicles, upon which the popular British television series was based. (A new season of "Grantchester" began this month on public television's "Masterpiece" and PBS donors can find past episodes on PBS Passport.) 

Unlike the series, which is on its third vicar, the books are only about Sidney Chambers. "The Dangers of Temptation" is actually a series of several short mystery stories (in a very loose sense of the term; I don't remember a murder here). Some of the plots have been adapted in some form for the series, though not exactly as Runcie has written (though -- to be fair -- they may well have been included in the early years of the long-running series, more or less "as is." 

For example, in one story, Sidney is asked to find a valuable necklace, loaned to a Cambridge student by her mother and lost in a wild event. In another, Sidney and his wife and daughter, East German by birth visit her mother and friends (the books are set in years before the Berlin Wall came down). Another case finds the supposedly deceased husband of Sidney's housekeeper, Mrs. Maguire, has returned, years after the end of World War II. Another finds his friend and former curate, Leonard, who is being blackmailed. 

These are mysteries without the gore and murder and are gentle, but also thoughtful and insightful. If you are familiar with the series, the characters stay "true," though many of the situations may be new and less familiar. It is a very fast read, despite coming in at 315 pages. 

"The Comfort of Ghosts" by Jacqueline Winspear

Has there ever been a book you really have not wanted to read simply because you know it is the final book in a long series and you don't want that series to end? Ever.

That's how I felt about "The Comfort of Ghosts," the final book in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. The series follows Maisie, who had started life as a 13-year-old in service and by the end of the series had become a respected detective and psychologist. Series readers have followed Maisie through both World Wars and in that time have come to love her father Frankie and stepmother Brenda; her office partner Billy; Lord and Lady Compton, who first gave Maisie employment, then aided her education, eventually becoming family; her effervescent best friend Priscilla and law enforcement officials Robbie MacFarlane and DCI Caldwell. 

In this final offering, Maisie is ready to retire and enjoy life with her husband Mark and their ten year-old daughter, leaving the agency to her associate Billy. But when she encounters four teenagers squatting in the Compton's London home after the war and harboring a shell-shocked soldier (who Maisie discovers is the son of dear friend), she becomes involved. The teens have a story to tell, having seen the assassination of a socially prominent Brit who was a Nazi sympathizer and now they fear for their lives. With good reason, it seems, for MacFarlane wants to find the teens too. Maisie wants to keep them safe.

It would seem that for a final case, one mystery would be enough, but when Maisie learns of another situation in which a baby was given up for adoption by a fellow maid in the Compton family in the years before WWI, she cannot help becoming involved.

As much as I hate to see Maisie's story end, I cannot think of a more fitting conclusion. For longtime readers, Winspear artfully touches on the elements and stories of Maisie's past, retelling her story in small bits along the way so that even a new reader would not be confused. In fact, anyone not familiar with the series reading this book as its first, would find enough background to be fully informed and yet eager to know more about her past cases.

"An Astronomer in Love" by Antoine Laurain

 

I usually love Antoine Laurain's books, which often combine elements of gentle fantasy with serendipity for a story that may also have a bit of a romantic twist. They are charming and I've never really been disappointed.

I wasn't disappointed with "An Astronomer in Love" either, but it was far from my favorite and I'm trying to decide why. The closest I can come is that I'm not generally fond of stories that bounce back forth between contemporary to historic times and that's the structure of this one. I guess it just breaks my flow. But others may not mind that at all. (Even saying that, I did find it intriguing.) 

One plot focuses around Guillaume Le Gentil, the French king's envoy and master astronomer. He is on a quest to see the transit of Venus, an astrological attraction that happens rarely -- twice in eight years, then not for another hundred years. Gentil is headed to India aboard a ship to find the best viewing site for this transit. Along the way he has many adventures -- including missing the transit the first time, staying on the islands during the time before the next, and discovering the natural beauty and people of those islands. Will he see the second transit and if he does, what will happen when he returns to Paris after so many years away?

The second finds Xavier, a divorced real estate agent with an eleven-year-old son who lives in Paris. In a cupboard of one of the apartments he has sold, an antique telescope was found, and it turns out to be that of Gentil. Of course Xavier is intrigued, both with the telescope (as much to entertain his son as himself) and what he sees when he looks through it from his terrace. One of the sites he discovers is the apartment of Alice, a single mother in search of a new apartment for herself and her daughter. She serendipitously ends up at Xavier's firm. Would they find a way to be together?

Guillaume Le Gentil was a real person who later wrote of his voyage and knowing this helped make his story all the more real. That of Alice and Xavier is fiction, of course, but it is sweet and charming. 

I enjoyed this  more and more as I made my way through it (and it's a rather short novel, closer to a novella.) I think you might too, especially if you like a love story, an adventure or studying the stars.

"My Friend Mr. Campion and Other Mysteries" by Margery Allingham

 

It's back to classic British mysteries for this collection of stories about Albert Campion, man about town in the 1930s whose friends in the upper echelons of society provide situations that draw him into mysteries. capers and murders. (Some might remember the series in 1989-90 starring Peter Davison in the lead. I still see him when I read the books!)

This is a collection of several short stories and one longer novella, "The Case of the Late Pig," which was among those dramatized in the series and finds Campion attending the funeral of a man he had known years before at school and soon after being drawn into a murder. The short stories include cases of jewel theft, insurance scams and blackmail. They are clever classic mysteries with little violence (OK, there is a murder in the novella, but it's not particularly gory -- the story is in the quest to find "whodunit.)

Allingham writes a good story and the characters (especially Campion but also his servant Lugg and Superintendent Oates) are entertaining. She's a writer who plays pretty fair in telling her story, revealing all the information one needs to solve it -- but good luck with that! After reading this collection I will seek her Campion stories out again. 

"Telling Tales" by Ann Cleeves

 

After the Allingham short stories, it was good to dig into a complex mystery again and no one does that better than Ann Cleeves (well, some just as good, like Louise Penny, but you get the idea!) "Telling Tales" finds Vera Stanhope and her sergeant, Joe Ashworth, revisiting a murder of a 15-year-old girl a decade before after it turns out that there was indeed a corroborating witness that meant the woman convicted of the crime was innocent.

Vera and Joe are working on a different patch, having been brought in to offer a different perspective on the old case. They aren't met with a great deal of cooperation from the local police and things become even more challenging after a second murder takes place, that of the brother of Emma, now an adult but only 15 when she discovered the body of her best friend.

As with all of Cleeves' work, the secondary characters take on roles of major importance in determining who was responsible, both for Abigail's death and, later in the book, a second murder. There are Emma's parents, brother and husband; the father of the deceased girl; members of the police team who rushed to judgment in the first case; the father of the convicted but now innocent murderer and many more. Stanhope fleshes out all of these characters and many others, even the bit players, in ways that bring them to life. And when she comes to a conclusion, it is always a surprise!

"Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk" by David Sedaris

 

I have no idea how to review this book except to say that it is not for everyone. It makes me wonder a bit about Sedaris' mental state to write it in the first place and mine to enjoy it so much! Well, mostly enjoy it -- even a couple stories were a little over the edge for me! And yet, he is an astute observer of humans and their characteristics -- especially the ones most likely to get under the skin of others -- and those observations are spot on in this short collection of mini-stories.

Writers have anthropomorphized animals for decades. (I still hate to trap a mouse and I blame this on E.B. White's "Stuart Little.") I think of Sedaris' book as "Aesop's Fables" meets "Real Housewives of Anyplace" or "The Good Samaritan" if the biblical story's ending was much different! Or, O. Henry with a twist of the knife.

The animals in this book are like people we've all known and in situations we may well have experienced ourselves. Take, for example, the cheapskate cow who reluctantly joins in the barnyard's Secret Santa exchange, only if he's allowed to have the turkey as his recipient? Why? He has overheard the people saying the turkey will be Christmas dinner. Will Cow get her comeuppance? 

Then there is the squirrel and chipmunk who meet on a blind date and develop a relationship that fails when the chipmunk pretends to like jazz without knowing what it is.  When told numerous false tales about what it might be, all pretty sordid, she breaks off the relationship, only to learn years later what jazz is and perhaps she made a mistake in writing off the squirrel without better research. (OK, it reads better than I just described it. Trust me.) But how many times did we -- or someone we know -- bail out of something potentially good because they heard false information. Or, you could think of it as a modern political tale.

There is the self-righteous sheep, a backstabbing baboon, and a parrot (who is a journalist) that takes exception to a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig (who happens to be a museum director) for bringing Asian art to the museum. In another, a faithful Irish setter learns his wife is cheating on him. If you both brag about and complain about your friends, you may find a story about a baboon hairdresser more than a little uncomfortable, but if you know someone just like that, you'll laugh out loud.  

How can I describe how funny some of these stories are, how very much they describe people we may well know who might be ignorant or arrogant, petty or vain, condescending or frustratingly optimistic. And sometimes, don't we just wish -- even a little, against our better natures of trying to be good, perhaps with more than a bit of guilt -- that they'd get a bit of their own back? 

When I read an early story, I thought "oh, this would be fun to read with the grands." By two or three stories in I knew that they were NOT going to be reading this book with me. Well, not for a lot of years at which point they may wonder what was wrong with their gran that she really liked this book. (Besides, they are too young to have encountered that many weird people (and I regret that someday they will) so they wouldn't get the humor.)

I will say not every story had a slightly bent twist. I was almost afraid to read to the end of "The Grieving Owl" because it was such a sweet story and I didn't want anything bad to happen to this generous, kind, sad bird. But when it ended, I had a sweet, satisfied smile on my face.

This is one of the books I call a "bathroom/waiting room book." The book is small, about 5x7" in size, if that, with fairly large type and most stories are about five pages. It has wonderful illustrations by "Olivia" artist Ian Falconer. 

You will love this book or hate it. There's not a lot of middle ground. I loved it.

"Murder In Vienna" by E.C.R. Lorac

 

I love this author. E.C.R. Lorac penned this mystery in 1956 when post-war/cold war readers long-starved for travel were scooping up books set in beautiful foreign locales. This one takes viewers to beautiful Vienna with Chief Superintendent Macdonald, eager for a long deserved holiday at last.

He's on a small plane with a number of passengers, including a young woman (Miss Levendre) who has been employed to be a secretary to assist a diplomat writing his memoirs. On the first leg of her flight she was sitting next to a man in a camel coat who buried his head in a book. Others on the plane he recognizes are Walsingham, a celebrated author. But he notices others as well, including a gregarious photographer whom he'll later find has greater powers of observation than he!

He has barely settled into vacation with his friends when he receives a call from Miss Levendre's employer that she went to walk the dog and didn't return home. Macdonald and his friend go in search of her, as he had recommended a certain garden area for walks. She is found unconscious. The matter is turned over to the Vienna police. But the next day, Walsingham's body is found, the victim of a motor accident. Could the two cases be related?

The plot twists and turns as Macdonald coordinates (at the request of the Embassy) with the Vienna police in an intriguing plot that includes a sought-after manuscript and an array of suspects.

As in previous books, her dialogue is sharp, the characters so well drawn one can easily visualize them and leading to a conclusion that makes you wonder why you didn't see it sooner. (But then, neither did Macdonald for some time.)

I love this British Library Classic Crime series and Lorac has become my new favorite author. This one is worthy of her! 

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