Ben’s Comments (group member since Apr 08, 2020)

Ben’s comments from the Death on the Shelf group.

Linda's comments:

The repartee among the intelligentsia in this book annoys me. Maybe it was because it was over my head but I thought they were all showing off their lofty academic achievements. Also I was unfamiliar with several of the university positions mentioned in this book, such as warden. I would have preferred a more focus and speed with regard to the plotline.

Harriett Vane was the principal character yet the book was advertised as a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery. I did not remember Lord Peter having been so stuffy, but I haven't read any of Sayers' books recently. There are some gaps in my review because I kept dozing off.

2 stars.

I hate to keep coming up with unfavorable comments about our selections. Maybe I am becoming a COVID curmudgeon.

I hope we can continue with the book club because I enjoy listening to others comments and I often learn from someone else's perspective, as was true with this book. Thanks to Ben for recording my comments, and I hope Stephanie and others will continue to participate.

I am perhaps Lord Peter Wimsey’s biggest fan because of his whimsical approach to tracking down murderers, and I have read several of the series. Dorothy L. Sayers writes about her characters with considerable wit and charm. In terms of a Lord Peter mystery, it is near the bottom of my list, but in terms of its 1930s-era discussion of academic topics, and particularly the role of women at that time, it is near the top. It deserves all the praise it has garnered. While I never got caught up in the mystery, I enjoyed the debates among the women about marriage and motherhood vs. academia, as well as whether one should ruin someone's career and family vs. being true to history, or Harriett’s own internal debate regarding her feelings about Lord Peter’s persistent marriage proposals.

Because there were no murders in this mystery, Lord Peter didn’t have much to do and was kept to a minimal sleuthing. That’s probably just as well. Meanwhile, I kept wishing the college would commit the resources needed to solve the mystery rather than hoping Miss Vane would stumble on the solution during her rambles. In that regard, I found it frustrating.

Since I was listening to audio version of this book, I occasionally had stop and think about who was talking, Miss de Vine or Miss Vane, and I wondered why the author would have characters named so similarly. I should have been more suspicious about that since that turned out to be an early clue to the whole mystery.

If I had to rate it, I’d probably give it 3 stars, an average of 2 for the mystery itself and 4 for the thought-provoking world of Harriett Vane that surrounded it.

Linda and I were sorry to hear about your retirement, Greg. You've been very supportive with regard to computer issues and a reliable book group leader. We'll miss you.

Death at the Flamingo

Linda comments:
The comparison of Reggie and Hamish to Nick and Nora Charles of movie series fame was appropriate. The novel seemed to me to be a copycat of those plots and it appeared to have a lot of filler narrative. I was not sure why the author found it necessary to burden Hamish with his panic attack problem. He could have fled Toronto because of sheer rebellion alone. I never connected with any of the main characters. However, I would like to revisit Boston to see some of the sights I previously missed.
Overall I thought this novel was hackneyed, and I would award it with only two stars.

Ben's comments:
“Death at the Flamingo” is weighted down as it carries all the baggage that a first-in-a-series mystery must, busy telling the reasons Hamish and Reggie end up, and end up together, in Boston. Still, even with all that, I thought the writing was pretty good and I liked the quirky characters.
The plot, however, was confusing to me, and the relationship between Hamish DeLuca and Reggie Van Buren meandered, especially at the end. Not a satisfying ending. I'd give it 2 1/2 stars in the plot department.
The murder mystery --- who killed the cigarette girl? – was sort of a nonissue, compared to the buildup in the book’s title. The cops didn’t seem to care, certainly, and no one seemed particularly troubled when it was written off as an accident, except our two would-be sleuths. In the end the killer was tricked into confessing in a way that strained credulity. But that’s OK because that wasn’t really the mystery.
The real mystery was Luca Valari, why he left Chicago, why he was so popular in Boston and why some people wanted to kill him. I’m not sure I understand the answer to that mystery even yet, or care, but it had something to do with his lawyer in Cicero, Ill., and his housekeeper. Maybe all that will get sorted out in the next installment. Or maybe I just missed it.
What I really liked about this book was its descriptions of the dancing. Not being a dancer myself, I’ve always wondered about the magic ascribed to it by people who dance and enjoy it. This book helped me understand the freedom and synchronicity of dancing, and how it allows the people who dance and dance well to feel about it as they do. I get it now.

From Linda:
Several references were made in this work of fiction to a previous book about a double murder which was solved by the main character here, Gethsemane. Apparently it was also about the occult. I’m not a big fan of the occult and I cannot say I would be enthusiastic about reading it.
The audio reader seemed to be overemphasizing her accent and that annoyed me. Her attempts to use a southern accent was phony. The audio reader on the hoopla version was very fast. The CD recording was a better pace for me.
I never connected with the story and I didn’t really care who the culprit was. I dozed off several times.
The preoccupation with the needlework sampler felt overzealous. I couldn’t really understand it. The references to the destructive hotel developer could have been a glaring parody of Donald Trump. It was interesting.
This book seemed to mimic the movie “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.”
I would rate this book with 2 stars.

I'll go early, too.
I was rolling my eyes quite a bit. With a title like “Death in D Minor,” I knew there would be death, and I figured music would have a role, maybe a murder during a concert where a fugue in the key of D minor, for instance, figured in somehow. There were deaths, but music was almost an aside to the various forms of mayhem we saw.
We did have a ghost or two playing a minor role in this meandering mystery, which I learned was part of a series of books with musical titles.
I won’t be reading the other four. For one thing, I’m not that into ghostly intrusions in my mysteries, and that seems to be a common thread. For another, this particular mystery never took off for me. There were so many things along the way that made me think “That wouldn’t happen” or “That couldn’t happen,” the foremost example being when Brown went to a derelict factory alone and climbed out on a flimsy catwalk to retrieve an envelope of unknown origin. Even someone without a doctorate might suspect a trap.
I’m also not a fan of textile art. It’s a shortcoming, I know.
The writing wasn’t bad, the characters were often interesting, the relationship between Brown and the inspector is perhaps going somewhere, someday, but the plotting wasn’t as good as it needed to be for me. Mixing in textiles and ghosts didn’t help.

For January, I prefer "Flamingo."
For February, these are both classics by great authors and I'd be glad to read either one. Maybe save the other one for March or April or May?
I'll wait awhile to venture an opinion on the other choices. Meanwhile, I'll share this list with Linda.

From Linda:

The Little Bookshop of Murder was a fluffy, lightweight mystery plot but I stuck with it and I had no objection to the change of pace. The characters were a bit unrealistic in that they were providing lots of free labor with the bookstore chores. I thought the central members of the club were just a bit too chummy to be real. I did like the beachfront setting, however.

Did anyone try the Mermaid Pie recipe?

I would rate this book with three stars.

I'm posting this early because I may not be here on the 17th. It contains spoilers, so beware!




I thought this was more of an advertisement for romance books than a mystery.
It was not a romance, however, because it missed every opportunity for Summer to fall in love. Would it be the handsome but suspicious high school English teacher or the handsome, caring fire chief? It was neither. It was no one.
It was not a mystery, however, in the traditional sense. It’s true that Summer’s mother died mysteriously, but a lot of the book was more about not pursuing the obvious leads to trying to solve the mystery. Did we question Doris? No, because she was so upset at Hildy’s death. Did we check the safety deposit box for clues? Or anything? We questioned people who were with Hildy before her death, we included some as suspects and eliminated others, We waited and waited for the autopsy results, then waited for the doctor to get back from a fishing trip to look at them. Turns out it was a crime of jealousy, but why did the jealous wife send anonymous notes exhorting Hildy to sell the bookstore? How would that solve the problem? After dispatching Summer’s mother, why would she continue to try to harm Summer, who wasn’t coming on to her husband (as far as we know)?
Meanwhile, we have trumped up drama with the neighbor’s cat playing a role to pose a pretend threat, we have a spreadsheet that doesn’t add up to pose another. Both are red herring bumps in the plot. It all seemed like filler to me, to add pages to a meandering novel. A witchy woman friend of Hildy’s gives an ominous warning. The first edition books are stolen from the bookstore. Why would the murder suspect do this? This plot had so much spinning of wheels that I knew I was in the midst of a muddy mess.
There was another mystery – who was Summer’s father – but it was solved by sheer coincidence.
And what WAS in that safe deposit box? The world may never know. Did I miss that?
But we did learn, over and over, that romance novels were better than ever.
I confess, this book did offer one surprise. I thought Summer would encounter a spider in this story, that a spider might play an important role. Did I miss that, too?

Thanks.

From Ben:
If good books are an immersive experience, this was not a good book for me. I never really got interested. I thought the story was disjointed. I didn't really care for any of the main characters. Helen -- may I call her Helen? -- tried to be a good mother but deceived her son, about his father, about herself, etc. I just didn't like her. I'm sure she was a victim of bad circumstances, but she failed to rise much above them in any moral sense.
I might have liked her more if she had been a real lobbyist, and they can be pretty disgusting, I'm told.
And of course it really wasn't a classic mystery. I long for a good mystery.
Yes, the business about Terry being tacked on to the plot raised my suspicions, perhaps because Helen didn't investigate him as she thoroughly as she did most of her clients. Did she even Google him? The business about the file cabinets with shredders below is an interesting idea -- and central to the plot -- but would that really work? For them to be so silent that someone would stick a hand in? I'm skeptical.
It was my first Lippman book, too. I do enjoy books by Elinor Lipman, however. She doesn't write mysteries, but she does write well, and the dialogue among her characters is excellent.

From Linda: 2 stars.

From Linda: For the second month in a row we are reading a book about people who are living deceptive or dual lives. The main character’s problems kept compounding. It was remarkable that Heloise overestimated her own street smarts. She thought she had everyone figured out but she was snookered by Val, Sophie, Terry and her accountant. The stress level kept building because there was an absence of chapter breaks. I wish the author would have taken her foot off the gas pedal occasionally. With the exception of Scott and Audrey, the players in this drama were a thoroughly distasteful lot.
When I invest my time in listening to a book, I appreciate learning at least a few bits of useful information. This book failed to provide that. Maybe the author was trying to provide a cautionary tale to any gals who were considering working in the sex trade.

From Linda:
To say the principal character in this book is analytical and secretive would be an understatement. Corte is represented as an overachiever on steroids. He has multiple scholastic degrees, rarely sleeps and is expert in all the games he plays. He outsmarts all of his adversaries by anticipating their next moves. All this while keeping his family in the dark about what his job entails. To me, the superheroism is overdone.
I did find the way Corte was able to read facial expressions, body gestures and casual remarks to be intriguing. I wondered if the author had received CIA or FBI training. The intended target of the stalkers kept changing and I thought it was fun guessing who the target really was.
This thriller was a departure from our usual selections but I welcomed a change every now and then. I stuck with the book after the first few chapters. I would award this book with 3½ stars.

From Ben:
I didn't read this book. I started it, listening to the exciting introduction, but I quickly decided it was a thriller, and probably a violent thriller at that: two things I don't really enjoy, especially when they are together. So I read no further. But I look forward to reading what members of the group have to say about i, and I look forward to the next book, which hopefully falls more into the genre where the chief thrill is the solution of the mystery.

Ben's very own comments (he does go on):

Let me begin by saying that I’m not a big Anthony Horowitz fan. I’ve read his two other detective novels and I’ve enjoyed his creation, “Foyle’s War,” up to a point, so I’m not new to him. Maybe that’s the problem. I’m a little tired of him.

“Foyle’s War” wore me down. After awhile, every story seemed the same, the mystery always solved in the same manner. I liked the actors, and I hung on for them, but the storyline eroded into banality (for me).

A friend recently loaned me Horowitz’s two other detective novels as a pandemic analgesic. They starred writer Anthony Horowitz – yes, our author -- as the bumbling sidekick to former Detective Inspector Hawthorne. They were cleverly plotted mysteries, to be sure, but I thought they were trying too hard to entertain with quirky characters and actions that often defied belief. Too cute. Over the top. Absurd.

But then I read “Magpie Murders,” which I found really absurd. Horowitz had outdone himself. I’m not knocking the writing or the mysteries themselves, which I thought were – taken out of the context of the weird juxtaposition – pretty darn clever. But again, I felt Horowitz’s presence behind every twist and turn. I couldn’t extricate myself from the machinations of the book. I was unable to lose myself in the story itself because I was too busy keeping track of all the characters and the different realities they were juggling. It did not spring naturally to life, as a good story should. It seemed manufactured from beginning to end.

Anyone else have this problem?

But let me respond to a few of Melinda’s questions.

Inspiration vs. stealing: It is not always a fine line, as it was in “Magpie Murders.” Hence the number of plagiarism cases that end up in court, the number of term papers that are scrutinized for stolen ideas or phrases. One must be familiar with the original work to determine whether the line has been crossed. Then there is the “homage,” in which the new work acknowledges and honors the older work. If you’re comfortable naming your inspiration, then you’re not stealing. I guess. The Guardian sees “Magpie Murders” as a sort of homage to the Golden Age of mysteries. Well, it tried.

Function of the murder in a murder mystery: Good question. Something to anticipate? A fulcrum on which the story pivots?

Susan Ryeland as detective: Worked for me.

Viability of the book within the book: I would have liked Atticus Pund’s mystery story better without all the peeks behind the curtain. It could certainly have stood on its own.

The ending: By then, I didn’t really care.

Linda W.'s comments:

This book held my attention from beginning to end. For the second time in two months we’ve read books with a plethora of possible suspects, which adds to the intrigue. I thought most of the characters were well developed, and I liked the pace. The sudden shift to the editor’s narrative midway through was unexpected and a technique I had never seen before in a novel.
I would be in favor of reading more stories by this author.
My only complaint was the female reader, Samantha Bond, who seemed to me to be arrogant. The other reader was much more pleasing to my taste. I appreciate those endings where they tie up everything at the end. I rated this book with five stars.

Responding to a couple of Melinda's questions:
The story within a story: At first I was annoyed, but I got over it real fast.
About popular mysteries: It’s like going out to dinner with an old friend where you run into the same character all the time. It’s comforting. I think it was Jodi Picoult I heard who said something like: “Some people write for awards; some write for commercial books. You’re probably going to reach more readers if you’re writing commercial books.”

Linda Wolfe’s comments on “My Soul to Take”:
This novel did not pique my interest until about a third of the way through. Once it did, I stuck with it. I appreciated that we had numerous suspects to consider for all 3 murders, which made it more intriguing for me. The principal character Tora left me with mixed feelings. On one hand I admired her persistence to learn the facts and defend her crazy client. On the other hand, she was much more committed to her career than her son and daughter, and she could be annoyingly nosy. Her friend Matthew proved to be much more supportive than I would have expected from a sometimes friend. He did seem to need a leader. I appreciated the author’s tidying up the story’s conclusion but I did need to back up the audio several times to figure out the characters being referred to. This is because of the Icelandic names, which were strange. I do not plan to book myself into any New Age resorts, and I am going to give this 3 out of 5 stars.

Thanks! It's good to hear some other opinions. I had read that some Nordic countries currently had extreme right wing groups, but I didn't know about their Nazi pasts. And I'm not even sure Iceland is Nordic. Anyway ...
If you think "My Soul to Take" had too many suspects, just wait for "Magpie Murders." Even the detectives at one point say: too many suspects. It turns out neither of the early deaths in the book -- I'm not done with the book, there may be more -- happened to people with whom many others had axes to grind. No axes yet, however, in the book.
Back to "My Soul to Take": I enjoyed the writing in the book and the pace of the book, which I would describe as leisurely. I thought the distractions that the lawyer had -- her lover, her ex, her kids -- were a little comic relief during her pursuit as she unraveled the mysteries, so I didn't mind them. I thought the characters were quirky, which helped me keep track of them, since their Icelandic names certainly didn't help. I would read another book by this author. I saw the author mentioned in a New York Times article recently on "Scandinavian noir" and it described her as having "created a memorably morose police detective," which may be the one who appeared in "My Soul to Take," but the article didn't mention the intrepid lawyer and her extended family. It recommended the author's book "The Day is Dark." I may look that up.
But you're right: Too many suspects, too many motives in "My Soul to Take," and not enough clues for an outside observer like myself to even attempt to solve the mystery. So I just went along for the ride. It was interesting but not enthralling. I enjoyed it on some level; I didn't feel like I had wasted my time, even if it left me somewhat unsatisfied.

thanks for the early heads-up.

Thank you.

Rumor has it that the book is My Soul to Take by an Icelandic author whose name I can't spell. I'm trying to get some official word from the library. You'd think it would be on their calendar. But not the last time I checked.