Forgotten Women Mystery Writers

I'm posting this link here because I'd love to explore some of these books.  I've read Mary Roberts Rhinehart, Georgette Heyer (I'm in the middle of reading all of her mysteries, but I haven't gotten to the one they mention here), and Josephine Tey.  But I am excited to read some of the other authors listed here.  Yippee!

Framley Parsonage - Book 18

Framley Pasrsonage by Anothony Trollope is the 4th book in the Chronicles of Barcetshire.  In this book we meet some of the inhabitants of Eastern Barcetshire, Lady Lufton and her son Lord Lufton, and the vicar she has given a living to, Mark Robarts.  Mark was a school friend of her son's who she took under her patronage.  She even found him a lovely wife, Fanny.  Now at about the age of 25 he is married, has a job as clergy, having all his life been obedient and compliant to his father and his patron.  But, alas, he goes astray.  He has ambitions of moving in higher circles, so against Lady Lufton's good judgment, he allows himself to become entangled with Mr. Sowerby, a debonair lawyer chronically in debt and with the bad habit of exploiting his friends for money.  Mr. Sowerby is almost the undoing of Mark.

There are several plot lines going and we meet new people but also revisit many people from before, most enjoyably Miss Dunstable.  But we also re-encounter Archdeacon Grantly and his wife Susan,  Mr. and Mrs. Arabin, and the Bishop and Mrs. Proudie.  There are several romances going on, all at different levels of actual affection and social climbing.  But the sweetest and main romance is between Lord Lufton and Mark's youngest sister, Lucy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.  It is full of wisdom and gentle humor and rings true in how the author depicts the foibles and failings, nobleness and fortitude of all the various characters.  There is a lot of satirizing of contemporary to Trollope's time politics.  I had trouble understanding exactly what this was all about and found the notes at the end of the book highly valuable.  Trollope loves throwing in a Latin quote or two and lots of references (in a tongue in cheek way) to Roman mythology.  The end notes helped with all that.  My Kindle edition was Oxford World's Classic, edited by Katherine Mullin and Francis O'Gorman.

Two thumbs up!  For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

They Found Him Dead - Book 17

They Found Him Dead is the 3rd mystery I've read right in a row by Georgette Heyer, featuring her favorite Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Hannasyde and his sidekick Sergeant Hemingway.

We have the same theme going as in the last two mysteries, the head a of rich family dies and the family is thrown into a tizzy with much questioning about heirs.  In this case, Silas Kane has just turned sixty and goes out for one of his nightly walks along the seaside cliffs, except this time they find him dead at the bottom of a cliff.  Is it an accident or not?  The heir is Clement Kane, an unhappily married man whose beautiful wife is about to leave him for another.  But now he's rich, so selfish Rosemary decides she'd rather stay with a rich husband then throw it all away on a tempestuous affair.  Alas, Clement is shot dead while sitting at his desk in the study.  Someone must have shot him from the garden.

Lots of characters again and lots of wonderful dialogue, though I have to say I didn't think the characters were quite as well fleshed out in this one as in the former two books.  We have Mrs. Emily Kane the old lady and matron of the house, her snippy but loyal maid, Ogle, and Miss Patricia Allison, who works as Emily's secretary and companion.  Miss Allison becomes engaged to Jim Kane, the next heir in line and Emily's favorite.  We also have Silas Kane's business partners, the Mansells, who seem bent on investing the Kane money in a risky business scheme.  And then there's also Jim Kane's 14 year old half brother (my favorite character in the book) Timothy, Oscar Roberts, a visiting Australian business man who takes great interest in trying to find out who the murderer might be, and Jim Kane's delightfully eccentric step father, Sir Adrian Harte, and intrepid world traveler mother (who returns from her exploration in Africa to run for parliament), Norma Harte.

Usually I just read mysteries for the pleasure of seeing the story line unfold.  I'm terrible at guessing who did it (unlike my husband who nearly always guesses right).  This time I tried to guess and was completely wrong.  Looking back though I can see plainly that there were definite clues I just didn't put together.  Alas, I will never make a good detective!

Two thumbs up!  I am highly enjoying these wonderfully written mysteries, but right now I'm going to take a break from them and go back to my Anthony Trollope challenge.  However, I am looking forward to spending the summer reading all of Heyer's mysteries.  I believe she wrote eight of them.

For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Behold, Here's Poison - Book 16

Behold, Here's Poison is the second in Georgette Heyer's Inspector Hannasyde series.  We meet the good inspector again as well as his assistant, Sergeant Hemingway.  And we even have Giles Carrington as a minor figure.  Giles was the solicitor and love interest in the first book, Death in the Stocks.

Horrible uncle Gregory Matthews is found dead one morning and the rest of the family is thrown into a dither because domineering, officious Aunt Gertrude insists on a post-mortem.  She's got an instinct which turns out to be right.  Uncle Matthews has been poisoned.  Who did it?  Everyone in the family had a reason to hate Uncle Matthews.  Inspector Hannasyde is called but he can't make any headway.  But the heir and new head of the family, Randall, knows something he isn't telling.

The character development and the dialogue are so fun.  Randall is just like one of Heyer's regency heroes, at first he seems too smart and too malevolent but slowly he grows on you and you begin to suspect he is actually much worthier than the rest of the family.    There's a cast of characters in this book:  Miss Matthews, Mrs. Mathews, Gertrude Lupton, Mr. Lupton, their two daughters, Guy and Stella, who are the young adult children of Mrs. Mathews, Dr. Fielding (Stella's fiance), and the next door neighbors Mr and Mrs. Rumbold.

Two thumbs up!  I'm having a wonderful time reading through Heyer's mysteries.  For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.