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Crows Are Black Everywhere/The Owl in the Cellar/Silence in Court/Death of a Swagman
Hardcover book club edition with four complete novels.
1094 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
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May 18, 2024Crows Are Black Everywhere (finished 5/17/28): Peggy Cameron is the spoiled daughter of an influential newspaper publisher. But she is determined to be a good reporter and flies to Chungking China to get the real story of the Sino-Japanese battles of the early years of World War II. The U.S. hasn't entered the war yet and is actually more pro-Japan--still sending materials and doing business with the country that would soon send war planes to Pearl Harbor. The officials all want to shuttle her through official Embassy channels, but Peggy knows they won't show her what it's really like on the ground in China. On the way in, she makes friends with Ted, the pilot, who promises to get her in contact with the Americans in China who are trying assist the Chinese efforts to repel the Japanese who will in turn help her interview Chinese citizens.
Although she says she wants to report the facts, she does come with a certain bias and she'll have to learn to overcome it if she's going to do her job properly. It isn't long before she's in the thick of things--just when there are rumors of Chinese traitors and even Americans helping the Japan bombers find their targets in the blackout. She meets Bill and Henry, Americans helping to train the Chinese fighters, and Tina, Olga, Mei-Ing are women of various backgrounds (mixed, Russian, Chinese) who are also assisting the cause. There are others whose loyalties are uncertain. When Henry intercepts coded messages originating from their location and directed at the Japanese, the hunt is on for the traitor(s), but can they find them before a devastating attack?
Herbert Yardley was a code breaker in World War I. He also served as a personal adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and later as an adviser to the Canadian government. So, he knows his onions when it comes to codes and situation in China. Carl Brabo was a professor of English at the University of Chicago. The story is a pretty standard war-time spy thriller novel. But it was definitely interesting to see a World War II novel from the American point of view, but set before America officially entered the war. And so many of the war-time thrillers I've read have been set in the European theater, so it was also interesting to have one set in Asia. Pretty good characterization and good background on a part of the war I didn't know. ★★★
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block
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The Owl in the Cellar (finished 5/18/24): Charlie Murphy is a young man with all kinds of troubles. He's home for a vacation, but his dreams of time to do whatever he wants whenever he wants die quickly. His mother is trying to set him up with a young woman who gives him a pain in the neck. Another young woman is dogging his footsteps wherever he goes. And the gangly, overall-wearing young woman next door keeps dragging him into murders. Well, not exactly. Charlie comes home late one evening to a mother who wants to know where he's been and who he's been with (and how on earth are you going to be awake enough to go play golf with Constance [the pain-giver] tomorrow?). Oh, and by the way, would he take care of the exotic bird in cellar before he goes to bed? Huh?
But Charlie, ever the dutiful son, goes down and finds an ordinary owl. He opens the cellar window and tries to encourage the bird to fly away. The owl has other ideas. He's taken a fancy to Charlie and refuses to go. So, Charlie leaves the owl and the open window and toddles off to bed. Later, he hears a noise and goes to investigate. The owl is still there...and so is a dead man dangling from the open window. When the police arrive in the person of Lieutenant Ryan, a wheelbarrow track leads directly to the house next door and blood is found on the Regents' wheelbarrow. The bodies start piling up and it begins to look pretty bad for someone in the Regent household. Charlie has developed a soft spot for Blue Regent (is that a name or what?) and plays hero, apparent accomplice, and amateur detective all at once. But is it possible his lady love is a killer after all?
As with most of the Margaret Scherf mysteries I've read, this one is great fun and a little off-the-wall. Charlie's mother is bigger-than-life Irish and the most meddlesome woman ever. If I were Charlie, I'd be moving out pronto. Of course, he's got bigger troubles than "Mayme" (as he calls her)--what with trying to dispose of guns and a second murdered man and Lt. Ryan implying that he might get locked up at any minute. But Charlie and Blue come through in the end and help Ryan nab the culprit. I had a sneaking suspicion "who" that was--but I didn't realize who the "who" was. (I promise that makes sense when you read the story...). Lots of frantic to-ing and fro-ing by Charlie and Blue and Daffy (Blue's sister) as well as others. Lots of bullets flying (though few hitting anything vital). Lots of clues and red-herrings and action. Just plain lots of fun. ★★★★
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
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Silence in Court:
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Death of a Swagman:
Although she says she wants to report the facts, she does come with a certain bias and she'll have to learn to overcome it if she's going to do her job properly. It isn't long before she's in the thick of things--just when there are rumors of Chinese traitors and even Americans helping the Japan bombers find their targets in the blackout. She meets Bill and Henry, Americans helping to train the Chinese fighters, and Tina, Olga, Mei-Ing are women of various backgrounds (mixed, Russian, Chinese) who are also assisting the cause. There are others whose loyalties are uncertain. When Henry intercepts coded messages originating from their location and directed at the Japanese, the hunt is on for the traitor(s), but can they find them before a devastating attack?
Herbert Yardley was a code breaker in World War I. He also served as a personal adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and later as an adviser to the Canadian government. So, he knows his onions when it comes to codes and situation in China. Carl Brabo was a professor of English at the University of Chicago. The story is a pretty standard war-time spy thriller novel. But it was definitely interesting to see a World War II novel from the American point of view, but set before America officially entered the war. And so many of the war-time thrillers I've read have been set in the European theater, so it was also interesting to have one set in Asia. Pretty good characterization and good background on a part of the war I didn't know. ★★★
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block
***************************
The Owl in the Cellar (finished 5/18/24): Charlie Murphy is a young man with all kinds of troubles. He's home for a vacation, but his dreams of time to do whatever he wants whenever he wants die quickly. His mother is trying to set him up with a young woman who gives him a pain in the neck. Another young woman is dogging his footsteps wherever he goes. And the gangly, overall-wearing young woman next door keeps dragging him into murders. Well, not exactly. Charlie comes home late one evening to a mother who wants to know where he's been and who he's been with (and how on earth are you going to be awake enough to go play golf with Constance [the pain-giver] tomorrow?). Oh, and by the way, would he take care of the exotic bird in cellar before he goes to bed? Huh?
But Charlie, ever the dutiful son, goes down and finds an ordinary owl. He opens the cellar window and tries to encourage the bird to fly away. The owl has other ideas. He's taken a fancy to Charlie and refuses to go. So, Charlie leaves the owl and the open window and toddles off to bed. Later, he hears a noise and goes to investigate. The owl is still there...and so is a dead man dangling from the open window. When the police arrive in the person of Lieutenant Ryan, a wheelbarrow track leads directly to the house next door and blood is found on the Regents' wheelbarrow. The bodies start piling up and it begins to look pretty bad for someone in the Regent household. Charlie has developed a soft spot for Blue Regent (is that a name or what?) and plays hero, apparent accomplice, and amateur detective all at once. But is it possible his lady love is a killer after all?
As with most of the Margaret Scherf mysteries I've read, this one is great fun and a little off-the-wall. Charlie's mother is bigger-than-life Irish and the most meddlesome woman ever. If I were Charlie, I'd be moving out pronto. Of course, he's got bigger troubles than "Mayme" (as he calls her)--what with trying to dispose of guns and a second murdered man and Lt. Ryan implying that he might get locked up at any minute. But Charlie and Blue come through in the end and help Ryan nab the culprit. I had a sneaking suspicion "who" that was--but I didn't realize who the "who" was. (I promise that makes sense when you read the story...). Lots of frantic to-ing and fro-ing by Charlie and Blue and Daffy (Blue's sister) as well as others. Lots of bullets flying (though few hitting anything vital). Lots of clues and red-herrings and action. Just plain lots of fun. ★★★★
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
***************************
Silence in Court:
***************************
Death of a Swagman:
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